


Bad Education

by RikuAino7



Category: Mamamoo
Genre: But As Teachers, F/F, High School AU, there isn’t really a plot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:15:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 32,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25916464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RikuAino7/pseuds/RikuAino7
Summary: Moon Byulyi is the teacher pupils dream of having. But her unconventional teaching methods has constantly put her at odds with the other teachers. Except one, Korean Literature teacher Kim Yongsun.OrByulyi is in denial about being in love with Yongsun and her students play match maker.
Relationships: Kim Yongsun | Solar/Moon Byulyi | Moonbyul
Comments: 56
Kudos: 266





	1. Chapter 1

Moon Byulyi had a certain reputation around school. She was known by all for being the most well liked teacher. The students would gush over how down to earth and hilarious she was. Parents didn’t like her, but they couldn’t complain too much considering how well their children were doing in her class. 

Byulyi taught history, but with a certain edge. She tried to make a seemingly boring subject fun. She often told her students that the more fun you make a subject, the more likely you are at remembering it. To further prove her point she often got the students involved in various games to help them memorise for tests. Their grades shot up and so did their enthusiasm for history. 

A lot of the faculty didn’t like her. She wasn’t a typical teacher. She would often speak to student as though they were friends and on a number of occasions other teachers heard her swear towards her pupils. They complained to the headmaster but to no avail. He wasn’t interested in their moans, he was only interested in how much the students grades improved. 

One teacher who gave Byulyi the benefit of the doubt was Korean literature teacher Kim Yongsun. Yongsun was also a well liked teacher. But not for the same reasons. The boys loved her because of how beautiful she was and the girls loved her because of how genuinely nice she was. 

Yongsun often defended Byulyi to the other staff members. Telling them that Byulyi’s unique teaching skills were actually working with the students and maybe other teachers should try it. They just mumbled and rolled their eyes at her. 

Sometimes the other teachers were right about her. Every so often Byulyi would act slightly inappropriately towards the students, swearing at them or ridiculing them, but they took it in all good humour and they treated her the same way. 

She even turned up to work hungover whenever her old school friend wanted to have a night out. That’s how Yongsun came across Byulyi dragging her feet inside the school hallways on a cold October morning. 

“Take your hood off.” Yongsun playfully snapped at her as she brushed past her. 

Smiling somewhat painfully, Byulyi pulled her hood down and revealed dark circles under her tired looking eyes. 

“Good night?” The older teacher asked, opening her classroom door and letting her students inside. 

Byulyi smirked and leaned against the wall next to the door, “It was so good, but I don’t know how I’m going to survive today.” 

“Well that’s your own fault,” Yongsun began walking into her classroom, “Who parties on a Tuesday night?” 

“Someone who doesn’t think about the consequences of her actions and wholeheartedly regrets not calling in sick.” The younger girl moaned, softly rubbing her eyes. 

“Enjoy your day, Miss Moon.” Yongsun winked before slamming the door shut in Byulyi’s face. 

She could hear the other woman groaning loudly behind the door, “Why did you have to shut it so loudly?” She then heard a soft bang on the door and knew Byulyi put her head to rest on the door for several seconds before walking to her own classroom. 

Luckily Byulyi’s room was only down the hall. She could see her students impatiently waiting outside and she gingerly approached. 

“You’re late.” One of them folded their arms across their chests, his thick French accent making her headache throb a bit more. 

“I know.” Byulyi unlocked the classroom door and let her students flood the room, “Guys, just to let you know I am very hungover today, so please don’t be annoying.” She flopped on her chair by her desk and rested her head on the cold wood. 

“Tu es un professeur ridicule.” The French student huffed before taking his seat.

“Olivier,” Byulyi raised her head slightly, “Your language is beautiful, but it means nothing to me.” 

After delegating the attendance register duties to Kang Seulgi - one of her most improved students - Byulyi allowed a few more seconds of peace before diving into today’s subject. 

“Okay guys,” she started, opening a can of Red Bull and taking a huge swig, “Tomorrow we have an test on the Mongolian invasion of Japan,” the groans from her students filled the silence, “So, you know what that means?” Twenty pairs of eyes looked up towards her eagerly, “It’s Class Wars!” 

All twenty students jumped up quickly and pushed their desks against the walls, Byulyi took out a box filled with costumes and plastic weapons. 

“Olivier,” She pointed at the French student, “What year did the Mongolians invade Japan?” 

“1274.” He answered without hesitation. 

“Perfect,” She chucked a Samurai helmet to him, “Your side of the room are the Japanese.” 

“Kitae,” she pointed at a slightly overweight boy on the other side of the room, “Which Khan was responsible for the invasion?”

His eyes went wide with the question, not because he didn’t know the answer but because of the attention it brought, “Kublai Khan.”

“Correct,” She smiled at him, “Here,” she handed him a Mongolian helmet, “You’re Kublai Khan.” 

The teacher in the classroom next to Byulyi’s absolutely hated class wars. All she could hear whilst she was trying to teach her own students was them screaming next door. She often complained to the headmaster but nothing was ever done about it. 

Instead she decided that she would confront the history teacher herself. As soon as the first scream was heard, she jumped out from her desk and in a flash, she was out the door. 

She didn’t bother with knocking, instead she just wrenched open the door in time to see the teacher on her back on the floor with a student decked out in Mongolian armour pointing a sword at Byulyi’s throat. 

“You’re dead, Miss.” the student sniggered, “God you’re easy to kill.” 

“I told you,” Byulyi groaned, pushing the sword away, “I’m very hungover and I’m a Samurai, I was supposed to die.”

“You’re hungover?” A stern voice called from the door way. In their excitement of the Byulyi falling so easy, no one noticed the strict teacher enter. 

Scrambling to her feet, Byulyi replied, “No, my character was.” She lied, rubbing the back of her neck in nervousness, “The Samurai I was portraying had drank too much sake the night before.”

“Can I speak to you outside?” Without waiting for an answer, she turned on her heel and stormed out. 

“Uh oh.” Another student, Irene, commented, “Someone’s in trouble.”

“Shut up, Irene.” Byulyi walked out after the other teacher, “Keep going like before, Seulgi, you’re in charge.”

Miss Park absolutely hated Byulyi and Byulyi knew it. She had tried to defuse the tension between them multiple times but with no positive results. Instead Miss Park proceeded to hate her more and more. Byulyi got fed up halfway through her second year as a teacher and came to the realisation that her and Miss Park were just destined to hate each other. 

“You know that’s not a playground.” She pointed menacingly towards Byulyi’s classroom. 

“Of course.” Byulyi rolled her eyes, “But doing something active stimulates the brain and more information gets absorbed when the brain is alert.”

Sighing, Miss Park snapped, “I hate you.” She poked Byulyi’s shoulder, “I hate you so much.”

“You know,” Byulyi began, “If you spent less time hating me and more time fixing this,” she pointed at Miss Park’s face, “You’d probably be able to find yourself a husband and finally release that pent up frustration you harbour for me.”

“You’re going to slip up one day,” she whispered, “And I will be there to see you get fired.” 

Byulyi leaned in close, “Well it’s been five years and I’m still going strong.” Winking, she turned and casually strolled back into her classroom. 

Her current class was a two hour session. Byulyi planned for the first half to be purely Class Wars and for the second half to be actual revising. Whenever they had the two hour class, however, the second hour was very rarely spent actually studying. 

“How was last night?” Sunghyuk grinned from the back of the class. 

“It was awesome,” Byulyi began writing important dates on the white board, “Hyejin was free for the first time in months and we ended up dressing up as Spartan warriors and gatecrashing someones party.” 

“Did they not kick you out?” Olivier asked. 

“No, they thought we were strippers so they let us stay.” 

“Did you strip?” Sunghyuk asked, eyes wide in shock. 

Chuckling softly, Byulyi shook her head, “I’m not answering that.”

“That means yes.” Sunghyuk laughed. 

“Can I hire you for a party, Miss?” Seulgi raised her hand, “It’ll be a private party, just you and me.” She winked. 

Turning to face the student, Byulyi pointed at her with her pen, “And from now on, comments like that will be banned.” 

The student huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. It was no secret within the school of Byulyi’s sexuality, she accidentally outed herself a few weeks into her first term by complaining about her ex-girlfriend. The fact that the schools favourite teacher was openly gay also helped a lot of students come to terms with their sexual identity. But it also caused a few students to gain the confidence to flirt with the history teacher. To which she had to shut down immediately. 

“No point trying it on with Byulyi,” A tall boy from next to Seulgi laughed, “Shes still in love with Miss Kim.”

Byulyi often didn’t mind her students calling her by her first name. As long as they didn’t do it when other teachers were present, she was alright with it. 

“I am not in love with Miss Kim.” She rolled her eyes. 

“Oh please,” the same boy, Jisung smirked, “Your Facebook password is Yongsun7.” 

Byulyi’s face resembled a fish as she opened and closed her mouth repeatedly before stammering, “How did you guess my password?” 

“It’s easy when you’re so predictable.” 

The teacher slowly held up her middle finger at the student before turning back to the white board and actually enforcing a revision session upon them. 

She was not in love with Miss Kim. She was just the only teacher that made the effort to talk to Byulyi. And yes she was one of the most beautiful women Byulyi had ever seen, both inside and out, but it didn’t mean that she was in love with the Korean literature teacher. 

Maybe she talked about the older woman too much. Or maybe she was caught one too many times staring at her during their weekly assembly’s. Maybe she should change her Facebook password, and twitter, and email. 

Yeah she definitely wasn’t in love with Kim Yongsun.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There’s a few references to drugs here, but if anything it’ll deter you away from them.

Byulyi was never early for school. She was either just on time or late. So when her 11th Grade class turned up to her classroom on a Monday morning, they knew something was wrong. 

She was sat by her desk with a Yankees baseball cap pulled low over her eyes. Sensing her students, Byulyi snapped her fingers, “Everyone get inside now and take your seats.”

Her class murmured uncertainly, slightly scared and wracking their brains to try and remember if they did anything wrong. No one could think of anything so instead they sat in complete silence. 

“Right,” Byulyi jumped up from where she was sat and menacingly stood at the front of the class, “If anyone laughs you’ll be getting three months worth of detentions, which includes Saturday detentions. Do you understand?”

After getting a mumble of ‘yes’s from her pupils, Byulyi pulled the cap off her head. The whole classroom sucked in a breath. A few students gasped loudly. 

“What happened to your eyebrow?” Seulgi asked, unconsciously touching her own eyebrows. 

“Hyejin had a party at ours on Saturday, things got out of hand.” Byulyi placed the hat down on her desk and leaned against it, “I was offered these brownies and I wasn’t aware they had drugs in them and I passed out on the couch. One of Hyejin’s friends must have shaved off my eyebrow.” She sighed, “Then Hyejin offered to draw it back on, but she only knows how to draw her own eyebrows, so now I look stupid because they don’t match.”

“I wouldn’t say stupid, Miss.” Sunghyuk sniggered, “I’d say you just look very skeptical.” 

Glaring at the boy, Byulyi yelled, “Sunghyuk, welcome to the Breakfast Club.”

“What?!” He argued, “I didn’t laugh.” 

“Grinning, smiling, sniggering, cackling and smirking counts as laughing.” She grabbed her cap and put it back on, “Miss Park does Saturday detentions so I hope it was worth it.”

Sunghyuk let his head sink and rest on his table, groaning as the cold wood sent goosebumps throughout his body. Irene raised her hand and Byulyi nodded at her. 

“So,” She started, “You’re telling us you took drugs this weekend?”

Scoffing, Byulyi rolled her eyes, “That’s the point you took away from that? I didn’t know they were filled with drugs, Irene, I don’t do drugs. Not since the college incident anyway.” She mumbled the last part. 

“Whats the college incident?” Jisung wiggled his eyebrows making Byulyi want to throw a marker at him. 

“I accidentally took speed and MDMA at the same time.” She shrugged as if it was nothing. 

“That’s a lot.” Seulgi commented. 

Sunghyuk lifted his head up, “There’s a story behind that, tell us.”

Sighing, Byulyi began, “There’s not much to tell. I don’t really remember much.” She tapped her chin, “Okay so Hyejin and I were invited to a party in our last year of college. She wanted to hook up with someone from the soccer team. She literally abandoned me for him.” She complained, “Then I accidentally stumbled into a room with four boys, they offered me a pill and I took it,” after getting some astonished looks from her students, she shook her head, “I’m not proud of it, don’t look at me like that.”

“Someone offered you a pill and you just took it?” Irene kept any sort of emotion out of her voice.

“Yes, don’t do what I did.” She waggled a finger at her class, “So yeah, I took this pill and it was the most disgusting thing ever, like seriously I gagged. But then there was a glass of water on the side with a few bits in it, and honestly I thought it was just sugar, so I drank it all.” She stopped. 

“Don’t do the pause!” Sunghyuk yelled, “This isn’t Korean Idol, you can’t pause for dramatic effect.”

Rolling her eyes, Byulyi continued, “Okay well, I was wearing green jeans and I had bright red hair at the time and when the drugs kicked in I genuinely thought I was Ariel from The Little Mermaid.” The class erupted into laughter, “It gets worse, save your laughter. I ran out of the party and across campus yelling ‘Where is my Prince? Where is my Eric?’ Then I ripped off my shirt and bra and grabbed two leafs and stuck them on my chest. Then I jumped into the water fountain head first and split my head open,” she pointed towards the scar by her hairline, “But I was still conscious. That’s where Hyejin found me and there’s a video of me in that fountain on her phone singing ‘Under The Sea’ so ridiculously loud that I lost my voice.” 

Laughing, Sunghyuk asked, “Then what happened?”

“Then Hyejin tried to get me out of the fountain and I yelled at her ‘Get away from me Ursula!’ She was so fucking pissed off I called her Ursula, she still won’t let me forget it.” Byulyi scratched the back of her neck, “Then some guy was walking past and I jumped on him calling him Eric and asking if he will kill Ursula. That’s the last thing I remember because four days later I woke up in hospital with my whole family around my bed.” 

The whole room was engulfed in violent laughter. Even Kitae, who Byulyi had never seen laugh before, was ridiculing her. 

“Honestly if you guys ever end up in a situation like mine where you’re offered drugs at a party, just imagine me in a fountain screaming Under The Sea for forty minutes straight because those three words were the only part of that song I knew, before harassing some poor art student. If there was ever an advertisement on drugs not being cool, I was it.”

Before Byulyi could divulge any information about what happened during her hospital visit, a knock came at the door. The history teacher uttered a small “Come in.”

“I’m sorry, Miss.” A small boy bowed at her, “But Miss Park sent me, you’re late for Monday assembly. She’s really mad.”

Rolling her eyes at the young lad, Byulyi responded, “Yeah well, you can tell Miss Park to go fuck herself.”

“Okay Miss.” He bowed before walking towards the theatre hall. 

“Wait, fuck, no.” Byulyi jumped up, “Excuse me!” She yelled, “Can you come back please?”

After making the student promise not to say anything to Miss Park, Byulyi gathered her class and headed to the theatre. Usually they’d be sat next to Miss Park’s class, but due to their tardiness, they had to sit by Miss Kim’s class. Which suited Byulyi fine. 

She could feel everyone’s eyes on her and her latecomers as they very loudly took their seats. Byulyi hung off to the side, cap still on her head and refusing to make eye contact with anyone. 

“You’re late.” A familiar voice whispered to her. 

Grinning, Byulyi lifted up her head, “It’s a long story.”

“Why are you wearing a cap indoors?” Yongsun made a play to remove the hat. 

Dodging her hands, Byulyi urgently whispered, “No! Don’t touch the hat.”

A few students turned towards them, rolled their eyes and turned back to the front. Byulyi followed their gaze and locked eyes with Miss Park who was stood beside the headmaster and glaring daggers at her. 

“You know that if she sees it, she’ll torch it.” Yongsun said matter of factly, “Whether it’s on your head or not.” 

“Do you have a make up bag?” Byulyi blurted out. 

“Sure.” The Korean Literature teacher looked slightly confused at the change of subject. 

Holding on to the edge of her cap, Byulyi warned, “I am going to show you something, and you can’t make a sound.”

After getting a nod of confirmation from the older woman, Byulyi took her hat off and revealed the damage. Yongsun gasped very loudly, causing a few of Byulyi’s students to turn around and roar with laughter. 

“Shut up and turn back around.” Byulyi ordered through gritted teeth before turning back to Yongsun, “Can you fix this?” She almost begged. 

“Come to my classroom during break and I’ll sort it for you.” Yongsun tried so hard not to laugh, her hand flew up to cover her mouth. 

“Have I ever told you how fantastically amazing and beautiful you are?” Byulyi grinned, her nose muscles twitching with happiness. 

Smacking the younger woman’s arm, Yongsun cringed, “No, thank goodness. Don’t be greasy or I won’t help you.” 

The rest of assembly went by rather dully. That is, however, until Miss Park took over from the headmaster. 

“As you are all aware,” Her voice boomed around the room, “Several of our students have fallen victim to muggings in the past few weeks. To help students feel more at ease walking home, we will be enforcing compulsory self defence classes all this week. I will be teaching these classes personally and I would like to thank Miss Moon’s class for volunteering first.” 

Twenty students turned to their teacher with shock and anger on their faces. Byulyi was too busy replying to a text her roommate sent her to realise what was going on. Yongsun softly snatched the phone out of her hands and nodded towards the front. Byulyi followed her movements and smiled uncertainly at Miss Park. 

“What just happened?” She mumbled to the Korean Literature teacher. 

Before she had the chance to reply, Miss Park dismissed the assembly and allowed teachers to take their classes back. Byulyi’s class walked in annoyed silence which further confused the history teacher. 

Once they were behind closed doors, however, the students erupted with complaints. 

“Why did you volunteer us?”

“Have you gone mad?”

“I am not fighting anyone, I just got my hair done.”

“No one is harming my face.”

Holding up her hands, Byulyi shushed them, “Okay, so obviously you guys are upset,” those were the wrong words apparently because the students were even more aggravated, “I have no idea what’s just happened, can someone fill me in?” 

“Miss Park basically said we have to take part in a self defence class sometime today.” Jisung glared at his teacher, “And instead of telling her to piss off, you smiled at her and even bowed your head.”

“I did not bow my head,” Sighing, Byulyi held up her phone, “I was replying to a text from Hyejin. I have no idea what happened or what Miss Park said.” 

“What did Hyejin want?” Sunghyuk asked, the momentary lapse in conversation calming a few students down. 

Hesitating, Byulyi mumbled, “She asked if anyone’s noticed this.” She pointed at her face. 

**

The two hour wait until break went by agonisingly slowly. It was made worse when Miss Park came by and confiscated Byulyi’s hat in the middle of a lesson. After her 9th Grade class made jokes at her expense, Byulyi considered giving herself bangs down to her eyes to cover her disastrous eyebrows. 

But luckily the bell rang signalling their mandatory fifteen minute break time before she could do more than touch the scissors in her desk. She almost knocked over a few students in her haste to get to Miss Kim’s classroom. 

Her eagerness to get to Miss Kim’s room was purely so she could fix her eyebrows. Nothing more. 

Knocking loudly, Byulyi grinned down at the slightly shorter woman as she opened the sliding door, “I’m here for hair and make up.” 

“I did not promise hair,” Yongsun rolled her eyes and turned around, “I cannot fix whatever mess you have going on up there.” 

Byulyi pulled her phone out in confusion before turning on the front facing camera and inspecting her hair. Because she had no plans on taking the hat off at all today, she just tied her long hair up in a very low ponytail. So due to the wearing of the hat, the top of her hair was frizzed behind repair. 

“I’ve been walking around like this?” She exclaimed taking her hair out of the ponytail and sweeping it to the side. “Why did no one tell me?” She pulled out a chair from the nearest desk and placed it loudly next to Yongsun’s. 

“Be truthful,” Yongsun began rummaging around in her bag, “If your teacher back in your school walked around looking like that, would you have told her?” 

Byulyi did not hesitate, “Yes. But then again I was a suck up in school. I would have told her and then got beaten up for it.”

“You would have been beaten up just for that?”

“Oh yeah. I went to boarding school,” She waved a hand dismissively, “I used to get beaten up for so many different things, like reminding the teacher about overdue homework, wearing my uniform correctly, crying on the first night because I thought my parents abandoned me. But everyone got beaten up at some point. That’s the beauty of boarding school.”

Yongsun seemed to contemplate what Byulyi divulged for a few seconds before replying, “Suddenly a lot of things you do and say make so much sense.”

The Korean Literature teacher took out her makeup wipes and pulled Byulyi’s chair as close as possible. Taking one out, she began to softly wipe her left eyebrow off, her hands softly trailing over the skin where her old eyebrow used to be. 

Byulyi suddenly felt suffocated. She was struggling to breathe. If she breathed in and out of her nose she’d be able to smell Yongsun’s perfume. If she breathed in and out of her mouth she’s sure she’d be panting heavily due to how rapidly her heart was beating. If she didn’t breathe at all, she’d most likely die. She was favouring death. 

“Your hairs are growing back.” Yongsun whispered as her fingers traced over her head. “You should have a fully formed eyebrow by next week.” 

“Oh good,” Byulyi’s mind went blank. 

Taking out her eyebrow pencil, Yongsun compared the colour of it to that of Byulyi’s other eyebrow, “Mines a bit darker than yours.” She said, “I’ll have to wipe your other eyebrow so the colours match.” 

“Do whatever you want.” Byulyi breathed. 

Nodding, Yongsun wiped the other eyebrow clean, just as agonisingly soft and slow as before. Byulyi’s sure she’s never felt hands as soft as Yongsun’s. 

Yongsun began applying the pencil to her right eyebrow before starting on her left. Her eyes darting back and forth between the right perfectly formed eyebrow and the left. Byulyi had to close her eyes, she was certain her eyes would give her feelings away and make the older woman uncomfortable. 

Unfortunately their few minutes of silent bliss was interrupted by Miss Park storming inside. She slammed Byulyi’s hat on Yongsun’s desk startling the two girls and making Yongsun’s hand slip. Byulyi’s eyebrow now starts in its normal position, but stops by her ear. 

“Miss Park.” Yongsun greeted, nodding her head at the older woman before grabbing a wipe and erasing her mistake. 

Miss Park didn’t acknowledge her, instead she rounded on Byulyi, “You know this isn’t uniform.”

“I’ve read my contract,” Byulyi replied surprisingly calm, “It actually says nothing about a uniform. I could come dressed as Cinderella and not get in trouble.” 

“Please come dressed as Cinderella.” Yongsun whispered, loud enough for Byulyi to hear but not loud enough for Miss Park. Byulyi winked in return. 

Ignoring Byulyi’s comment, Miss Park barked, “After break you are to take your 11th Grade class to the sports hall for our self defence classes. Make sure they change into gym clothes and the same goes for you.” 

“I haven’t brought gym clothes.” 

Smirking, Miss Park replied, “Then maybe you should have gone home during break time instead of in here getting your makeup done.” 

She turned on her heel and cockily walked out of the room. Byulyi knew what was going to happen during these classes. She knew what she was in for. She was slightly scared. 

“She’s going to beat me up.” Byulyi whined. 

Laughing, Yongsun replied, “She is not going to beat you up.” 

“Yes she is.” Byulyi nodded her head and getting soft glares from the woman in front of her, she took out another wipe and tried to neaten out the smudge the younger girl caused, “Shes been wanting to beat me up for five years and now she legally can.”

“Don’t be a baby.” The older girl winked, “She’s fifty-four. You can take her.”

“Yeah, but she also looks like a Disney villain.” 

Yongsun removed her hands after rolling her eyes at the dramatic history teacher. Taking out her own phone, she opened the camera and snapped a quick picture. 

“Did you just-“ 

“Here.” She shoved her phone in Byulyi’s face, “As good as new.” 

Byulyi was honestly shocked at how good her left eyebrow now looked. It was as though nothing had happened to her original eyebrow. 

“Are you magical?” She asked, awe and admiration in her voice. 

“No.” She winked, “but I am good with my hands.” 

Byulyi did not want to think about what those words were doing to her. Heat rushed to two places within her body. Before she could come up with a retort, the bell rang and students began flooding into Yongsun’s classroom. 

**

No gym clothes meant that Byulyi had to raid lost and found for some suitable kit. Unfortunately there is a reason why the things at lost and found are never claimed. 

She looked like a 70’s male porn star with her too tight vest top and agonisingly tight short shorts. They were the only items of clothing in that box that didn’t stink. Luckily in her haste to get ready this morning she wore her red Converse to school. So at least she didn’t have to wear lost and found sneakers. 

As soon as her class spotted her, they were engulfed in laughter for the third time that day. 

“Where’s your moustache?” Sunghyuk laughed. 

“The shorts look like they’re cutting off the circulation to your legs.” Irene grinned. 

“Your ass looks good, Miss.” Seulgi smirked, “If you need any help taking them off, give me a shout.” 

Raising her middle finger at all of her students, she pushed past them and into the sports hall where Miss Park was waiting for them. 

Noticing the students, Miss Park made her way over to them. 

“Stand in two lines,” She barked, “Side to side, with the tallest in the second line and the shortest in the first,” she turned to Byulyi, “That includes you.” 

After getting some astonished looks from her class, Byulyi joined her students and stood between Irene and Seulgi. 

“You.” She pointed at Byulyi, “You’re not wearing correct gym uniform.” 

“Right,” Byulyi slowly replied, “You are aware that I am a teacher? And I didn’t know about this until a few hours ago.” 

“No excuses!” She yelled, “Drop and give me twenty!”

The students and Byulyi could tell she was enjoying her power too much. But, being the cocky woman that she is, Byulyi tapped a finger on her chin before replying.

“Twenty what? I’m not doing exercise.” She then crossed her arms over her chest in defiance. 

Ignoring her, Miss Park stood by the soft mats and boomed across the sports hall, “Right so as you all know we will be doing some self defence exercises to help you guys when walking home.” 

Taking a look at her class, Byulyi snorted. They were the type to be the muggers and not the muggees, but she couldn’t tell Miss Park that. 

“Also,” the older teacher continued, “As you may be aware I am not allowed to practise any self defence techniques with students personally, so I will be practising on your teacher and you will partner with someone and copy what we do.” 

The smirk that came out with that statement made Byulyi want to throw up. She knew Miss Park just wanted to beat her up. This was the perfect excuse. ‘I’m sorry officer, we were practising self defence techniques and I accidentally stabbed her in the eye with my stiletto.’ Byulyi shuddered. 

“Miss Moon,” She beckoned with her fingers, “Come.”

Swallowing down her fear, Byulyi slowly walked towards her. 

She ended up on her back more times than she was proud of. After the first few times it was purely to show the students how to properly defend themselves against an oncoming attacker, but then it evolved into wrestling. At one point she was lying on her chest with her arm bent in an awkward position and Miss Parks foot on her back. 

This whole thing was very clearly a plot to embarrass the history teacher in front of her students. It didn’t work, however. The students weren’t ridiculing her, well, Sunghyuk was, but no one else was. Instead they felt slight pity for her. 

“Come at me again.” Miss Park demanded, “This time from the front.” 

Sighing with exhaustion, Byulyi did what she was told and ran towards the older woman. She was expecting to be flung over her shoulder again. What she wasn’t expecting was a hand to grab her wrist and an open palm to slam itself into her nose causing it to make a sickening cracking noise. 

She let herself fall to the ground as she clutched at her face. Small trickles of blood began to come from her nose. 

“Right,” she painfully spluttered, “I’m tapping out.” 

“We’re not finished!” Miss Park yelled out as Byulyi began to drag herself from the hall and into the closest bathroom. 

She inspected the damage done to her face and noticed a few other bruises to her face and neck. 

“At least my eyebrow is okay.” She chuckled at her reflection. 

Grabbing as much tissue as she could, Byulyi pressed it as hard as she could to her face. Before running to the staff room and grabbing the first aid kit, she quickly went back to the sports hall and told her students to get changed and head to their next lesson. 

**

Byulyi was woeful at first aid. In truth she was hoping someone would already be in the staff room and willing to help her. But unfortunately for her, she was having a pretty shitty day so there was just the smell of coffee and stale food that greeted her as she walked in. 

She scanned the room for the green first aid box and eventually found it tucked up in the corner of the room. 

“Great place to hide a first aid kit.” She grumbled. 

All she wanted was to stop the bleeding and a few ice packs for her face. She had no idea how to stop a nose bleed. She’s never had one before. 

“Just stop bleeding.” She whined at her nose. 

“Who are you talking to?” A voice from behind her startled her. 

“Miss Kim, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be teaching?” She tried her hardest to speak even though the pain made her speech slightly slurry. 

“I have a free period.” She smiled, “What happened to you?”

Chuckling softly, Byulyi removed the tissues, “I told you she wanted to beat me up.” 

Yongsun’s eyes widened slightly before she rushed over to her colleagues side, “Miss Park did this?”

Nodding, Byulyi placed the tissues back over her nose. 

“Sit down.” Yongsun ordered. Byulyi did not hesitate. As soon as the words left the older woman’s voice, she threw herself into a chair. 

Yongsun pinched the bridge of Byulyi’s nose and tilted her head back slightly. Grabbing the tissues from Byulyi’s hands she held them just under her nostrils until the bleeding stopped. She took a seat beside the taller girl and began wiping the blood from her nose and chin. 

“You’re nice.” Byulyi smiled. Their eyes connected for a brief moment before they parted. 

“Did you at least learn how to defend yourself?” Yongsun giggled. 

Rolling her eyes, Byulyi replied, “Nope. All I learned was how many times I could get my ass beat by Cruella DeVil.” 

“Cruella DeVil?” 

“Yep. After today I’ve finally realised who she reminds me of. And it’s Cruella DeVil. She definitely looks like she skins puppies in her spare time.” 

Laughing, Yongsun replied, “Who do I remind you of?” 

“Snow White.” Byulyi did not hesitate, “You have the aura of someone beloved by many, including animals. But you’re also too trusting, which is why you’re nice to Cruella DeVil.” 

Byulyi didn’t know it, but she was spot on with her analogy. Yongsun sighed softly to herself. She did trust people too easily and it caused many problems for her. She’s had her heart broken numerous times over men who lied to her. 

But that’s who she was. She fell hard, she trusted everyone and everything and she was nice to everyone. She needed to stop. She needed to be more pessimistic like Byulyi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m slightly overwhelmed by how many people have given this kudos and comments.
> 
> Thank you :) it’s a lovely feeling.
> 
> Also to everyone saying Byulyi reminds you of your teacher back in school, it’s awesome that you can read this and reminisce about your teachers.
> 
> Thank you for reading my story.


	3. Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After her students wear a questionable outfit at the school talent show, Byulyi is pressured into giving a sex education class in front of her class and their parents.

“You should wear suits more often,” The angel like voice of Yongsun whispered in Byulyi’s ear. 

Smirking, Byulyi turned her head in the direction of the shorter woman, “Why? Do you like what you see?” 

After a few seconds of silence and a sharp intake of breath, Yongsun smacked Byulyi’s shoulder and upper arm repeatedly, “God you’re so greasy! I hate it.”

Byulyi laughed at the little ball of anger stood next to her. The sound of a boy singing off key on the stage in front of her made her snap her head back to the front. 

The start of December signalled many things in their school. One of them being the Talent Show. On the first Friday of every December the school hosts a talent show where they invite parents to showcase what the pupils had to offer. 

Byulyi always got out of being present during these shows. She claimed she had more important things to do, like washing her hair or clipping her toenails. But unfortunately she was guilt tripped into coming by her own pupils. 

“To what do we owe the pleasure, anyway?” The older teacher asked, “You’re normally sprinting away from this school to avoid coming to the talent show.”

“I was forced to come,” Byulyi sighed, “I hate the talent show. If any of these kids actually had talent they’d be snapped up by a studio by now.” She cringed as the boy tried to sing a high note, “I mean, look at this guy.” She pointed at him, “Who on earth told him to do the talent show?”

“I did.” 

“Oh.” Byulyi froze. Panicking slightly she began to whip her head around trying to find an excuse to either change the subject or walk away. 

“What are you looking for?” Yongsun asked. 

“Nothing really,” she replied honestly, “I’m just looking for a way out of this conversation,” she nervously scratched the back of her neck just before she spotted Miss Park walking towards them, “Oh thank goodness, here comes Cruella DeVil.”

Yongsun rolled her eyes at the younger girl and turned towards the other teacher. She could hear Byulyi quietly singing the Cruella DeVil theme song behind her but ignored her and focused instead on Miss Park. 

“Hello,” she greeted, her trademark Disney Princess smile graced her face. 

Without exchanging pleasantries, Miss Park snapped, “God this boy is awful. He sounds like my neighbours cat after it ate rat poison.”

Horrified, Yongsun whispered, “How on earth did it manage to eat rat poison?”

“It kept pooping in my garden.” She shrugged before walking away. 

“If she doesn’t scare you, no evil thing will.” Byulyi’s voice sang straight into her left ear. 

Before the Korean literature teacher could say anything, the boy on stage finished his song. Luckily for the boys confidence the crowd applauded his efforts as he quickly ran off stage. 

“Thank god that’s over.” Byulyi also clapped, not because of the performance, but because it was over. 

Rolling her eyes, Yongsun sighed, “He wasn’t that bad.”

“Yeah, and the Titanic wasn’t that wet.” The history teacher snorted, “Oh, here comes my lot.” She spotted Seulgi, Irene and Jisung making their way on stage, “They used free periods to practise their dance in my class room, they’re actually really good.”

“Why are they wearing bathrobes?” 

“Dunno,” Byulyi shrugged. 

As soon as the lights came back on, the bathrobes were off and thrown to the back of the stage. All three wore tight crop tops, mini skirts and six-inch black high heels. Jisung wore a long black wig with bangs down to his eyes. Their backs were facing the audience who gasped when saw the trio’s attire. Seulgi was the only one out of the three that had writing on the back of her shirt. 

“What does that say?” Byulyi asked. 

Yongsun squinted at the hastily written message on Seulgi’s shirt, “It says ‘Teachers Pet.’”

Mouth wide open in shock and embarrassment, Byulyi snapped her head towards the other teacher, “No!” She almost yelled, “It does not say that. Please tell me you’re lying.” 

Unfortunately for the history teacher, Yongsun was telling the truth. Byulyi returned her gaze to the stage and watched on in shock as the two girls and one boy danced extremely provocatively in front of the students, teachers and parents. 

“Oh god, they’ve just slut dropped.” She heard Yongsun gasp. 

Byulyi knew that somehow she was getting the blame for this. And she was right. 

As soon as the talent show ended, the parents cornered all the teachers present. They couldn’t contain their outrage as they shouted over each other and demanded answers from the teachers. 

“This is absolutely outrageous!” One yelled over them all, “This is going on social media!” She held up her phone threateningly. 

“You,” another pointed a finger at the headmaster, “have let this place become a den of antiquity!”

The headmaster sighed, “Listen, we as a school try and encourage a more body positive attitude within our students, we do not condone what they wore, however and it will come at a price.” 

“I’m more worried about the Australian exchange students,” the first woman huffed, “I do not want my Chohee around a bunch of loose Australian boys, especially if this is how they’re expecting our girls to act and dress.”

Lowering her head so her lips were barely touching Yongsun’s ear, Byulyi chuckled, “I don’t think twinkly eyed Chohee will be high up on their list.” 

Ignoring her, Yongsun did what she did best and tried to defuse the situation, “Look.” She addressed them all, “We’re all arguing over something that can be easily rectified. We need to encourage the students to embrace the changes that are happening within their bodies instead of making them feel like these changes and urges aren’t normal.” 

“Are you sure your teachers are qualified to teach my child something as important as sex education?” Byulyi recognised this woman as Irene’s mother. 

Knowing the question was about her but wanting to deflect the question off of her, Byulyi smiled, “Listen, I know Miss Park has never had sex before, but I’m sure she’s watched videos of it late at night with the curtains closed and at least knows the basics.”

The parents glare at the history teacher, “How can we entrust our children to this idiot?” Irene’s mother yelled. 

Miss Park stepped forward, “She may be an idiot, but I’m sure she’s fully qualified to teach your children. How about you, as parents, join her whilst she teaches her class?” 

“What?” Byulyi asked dumbfounded. 

“You’re happy with that, right?” Miss Park smirked. 

Byulyi hesitated. It did not go unnoticed by the impatient parents. 

“Byulyi?” Yongsun asked, eyes pleading to say yes and voice softer than ever. 

“Yeah,” Byulyi squeaked, her voice extremely high, “Yeah, sure, I can do that.” 

Miss Park clapped her hands together happily, “That’s settled then. Monday, 4pm.” 

__

“Sex education?” 

“Yep.”

“You have to teach a class about safe sex?”

“Yes.”

“Are you even qualified?”

Groaning, Byulyi threw herself down on her couch, “That’s what the parents said.” 

As soon as Byulyi stepped foot into her shared apartment with Hyejin, the younger girl pounced on her. Hyejin knew the history teacher hated the talent show and even used Hyejin as an excuse to get out of it three times. If you were to ask the headmaster, Hyejin’s had two valve operations and lost a toe to frost bite. Hyejin once asked Byulyi what a valve operation was, Byulyi just shrugged her shoulders and replied, “I dunno, I just really like saying the word valve.”

She knew something was up when Byulyi announced she was actually going to attend this year. She was not disappointed when Byulyi told her everything that happened. 

“Oh Byulyi, I love you with all my heart but you’re not qualified to give a class on safe sex.” Hyejin laughed. 

“I have had sex, Hyejin, I know what I’m doing.” Byulyi waved a hand dismissively at the younger girl, “Plus Yongsun promised to get me a book on it.”

“I can give you some books,” Hyejin winked. 

Another girl made her way into the living room from the kitchen, hands full of drinks and snacks.

“Byulyi you didn’t even know that you could spread diseases using sex toys.” The newcomer, Wheein, chuckled. 

After letting out another groan, Byulyi snatched a drink from the table and took a huge gulp. She ignored the way the other two glanced at each other and sniggered. 

“Byulyi,” Wheein began, “When was the last time you actually had sex?” 

“I’m not sure,” Byulyi lay down on the couch with one arm behind her head as she rested the bottle in her hand on her leg, “Maybe ten...” she trailed off. 

“Ten days?” Hyejin asked. 

“No,” she shook her head, “Ten-“

“Weeks?” 

“No.”

“Jesus Christ, Byul,” Hyejin moaned, “Ten years?!” 

“Months,” Byulyi slowly but loudly said to the two girls, “Months!” She repeated, “Why are you missing out months?” She sighed before continuing, “Actually I think it’s closer to twelve.” 

Wheein chuckled, “Do you even remember what to do? You need to end this dry run.” 

Byulyi sat up, “Listen, I do want to end this dry run, but it seems like no one wants the Moonbyul,” she hit her fist off her chest, “At this very moment in time my body is like a phone in a silicone case. No matter what I do I can not smash.” She hit her fist off the palm of her other hand with each syllable of the last three words, “The closest I’ve come is getting offered a threesome.” 

“A threesome?” Wheein’s mouth opened in slight shock. 

“Yeah. It was with two men though,” Byulyi shrugged, “And they asked me through Instagram.”

“Are you going to do it?” Hyejin asked, winking as she did. 

Scoffing, the older woman replied, “No. Of course not!” Before muttering slightly, “I can’t afford a flight to Beijing.” 

“Right, so back on this sex education thing,” Wheein began, “How many people have you had sex with?”

Hyejin cut the history teacher off before she could answer, “Remember, power showers don’t count.”

“I know,” she reassured the youngest in the room, “I’ve had sex with four women.” Byulyi was quite proud of her number, that is, until Wheein laughed. 

“Four? Wow Byul, even I’ve had sex with more women than you and I only really have sex with men.” 

“Four is a lot!” She argued, “I had three long term relationships and a one night stand. So I’ve had lots of sex just with only four people.” Finishing her drink in one huge gulp, Byulyi muttered a goodbye to her unhelpful friends and threw herself on top of her bed. She was not looking forward to Monday. 

___

Byulyi stared blankly at her whiteboard in the hopes of some other teacher coming in to rescue them. She drew the female anatomy, but couldn’t draw the male anatomy. The best she could do was copy a crudely drawn one that she once saw in the stalls of a public bathroom. Even then several students laughed at her. 

The class was on the edge of their seats. Luckily the parents weren’t coming until after school, this class acted as a practise session before the real one. 

“Right,” Byulyi cleared her throat after staring blankly at the board for ten minutes, “Does anyone want to come up and draw the male anatomy?” 

“Do you not know how to draw a penis?” Olivier asked, his thick French accent taunting her. 

Scoffing, Byulyi replied, “I think it’s very obvious that I don’t.”

“Have you even seen a penis before?” Sunghyuk asked. 

“No, well...” She trailed off for a second, “Kind of, I’ve seen them on tv. Like I watch American shows like Jackass and they’re on there.”

The class grew silent for a few seconds before Jisung spoke up, “Are you sure you’re qualified to give us this sex education talk?” 

“Will people please stop asking me that.” Byulyi groaned, “I have had sex, I am qualified.” She rubbed her forehead, “I’m just not too sure about the male parts.” 

“Why don’t you ask Miss Kim?” Sunghyuk taunted, “I bet she’s had some wild times with her boyfriends.”

“Inappropriate.” Byulyi muttered, “Besides I did ask her and she gave me a book,” She walked around to the front of her desk and picked up a book, “‘Sex Education For Dummies.’” She read the title out loud, “Hyejin gave me three books too, ‘The Joys Of Sex’, ‘The Karma Sutra’, and ‘Fifty Shades Of Green.’”

“Don’t you mean Grey?” Jisung asked. 

Shaking her head, Byulyi lifted the book up, “No, this one was written by some English woman and everything she did in this book actually happened. In a lot of ways it’s more fucked up than the original version.” She shivered.

“How did they teach sex education in Hogwarts, Miss?” Sunghyuk yelled out. 

“Okay, for the millionth time, I did not go to Hogwarts, I went to a Catholic boarding school.” Byulyi awkwardly leaned against her desk, “I wasn’t really taught sex education.”

“There’s a surprise.” Jisung mumbled gaining a few chuckles from those who heard him. 

Ignoring the remark, Byulyi continued, “What I mean to say is, I attended a class on it, but we weren’t actually taught about it,” she stood up straight, “The teacher that came in was one of the three non-nuns that we had. She had a VHS tape in her hand and she quickly shoved it into the tv at the front of the class and then ran to the back. On the video there was this huge swimming pool and in the middle there was this woman lying on an inflatable, she represented the ovum. On the sides of this pool there were loads of men dressed in Speedo’s and swimming caps, they were the sperm. All of a sudden a gun went off and all the men dived into the pool trying to get to this woman. After a few seconds one of the men climbed onto the inflatable and embraced the woman. Then the teacher turned it off and we were told to go and have an early lunch break.”

The class stayed silent for a few seconds. Byulyi tapped a finger on her chin as she reminisced about her weird high school class. 

Clearing her throat, the teacher chuckled, “Hyejin refused to go swimming for months after that. She thought that’s how you get pregnant.” 

The the beginning of the lesson, Byulyi handed out a small piece of paper to each of her students and instructed for them to write down a question anonymously, place the paper in the box on the teachers desk and then she would read them out loud and answer as honestly as she could. 

Sighing, Byulyi pulled one out, “Right, let’s just get this over with. ‘If their lips turn blue, should I stop strangling?’” She read the first one, “Sunghyuk, you should probably just leave your grandma’s cats alone.”

The student in question protested, “Miss! This is supposed to be anonymous!” 

Rolling her eyes, Byulyi pulled out another, “‘Will any of the Australian exchange boys be on Grindr?’ Jisung, I have no idea.” 

“Ugh,” He complained, “It’ll be a lucky dip, then.”

Picking out another, “‘I’m seventeen, she’s twenty-seven. How would it feel?’ Illegal, Seulgi!” 

Walking back around her desk, she slumped down in her chair. She let her face rest in her hands before groaning, “I’m going to look like an idiot tonight. I need a gimmick.” Raising her head slightly, she glanced around her class, “I’m going to need to inspire some honesty from one of you. So I need someone to lie and come out as gay later on. Say my class gave you the confidence to be at one with your sexuality and then I can council you on it.”

Raising his hand, Jisung beamed, “Well, Miss, after a lot of soul searching, many sleepless nights and watching Happy Together nearly fifty times, I have come to the conclusion that I am gay.” 

The class congratulated him and Seulgi reached across them and held his hands in hers. Byulyi smiled sweetly at him, “That is wonderful, Jisung, but what we need here is a surprise.”

“I’ll go gay for you, Miss.” Seulgi winked, “I’ll even let you watch.” She whispered. 

“And with that comment, class is over.” 

___

Byulyi hid herself away in the corner of the staff room during lunch. She sloppily ate the packed lunch Hyejin made her as she read through the book Yongsun had given her. She was growing frustrated with the very little information her brain was absorbing. She read the same paragraph over and over again because to her, it just didn’t make sense. 

Someone plopped themselves down in the vacant seat next to her. She was oblivious to their presence until this person continuously sighed incredibly loudly. 

“What?!” She snapped whilst still trying to read the same paragraph for the twelfth time. 

“I just had the most wonderful, open and honest sex education class ever,” Byulyi whipped her head up to see the angel like features of one Kim Yongsun beaming at her, “It was so intense and so amazing that Daehyuk felt comfortable enough to tell us he was still a virgin.” 

“Ha!” Byulyi grinned, “Loser.” 

Smacking the younger girl on the arm, Yongsun huffed, “He’s seventeen, Byul, he should only be having sex when he’s ready and clearly he isn’t.” She crossed her arms over her chest, “How was your class?” 

It was more a challenge than a question. As though she was saying to the history teacher ‘Try and beat me.’ Byulyi just shrugged in response. 

“The usual, I have no idea what I’m talking about, I spend most of the lesson trying to figure out how something works, the class makes fun of me and Seulgi makes flirtatious comments.” 

Yongsun chuckled. She had a feeling the history teacher would struggle with the teachings of a sexual education class. She was almost relieved when Byulyi asked her for help. She thought the book would at least teach her the basics and give her something to work on. She was happy to see Byulyi reading it when she walked in. 

“I see you’re taking my book seriously.” Yongsun’s face was smug. 

“Yep,” Byulyi’s ears were turning red, “I have read the same paragraph fifteen times now and I don’t understand anything. Even the words don’t look real anymore. I mean, look at this!” She pointed to the paragraph she was struggling with, “Is this a word? It just looks like a blur.”

“Yes,” Yongsun eyed the panicking teacher slightly, “‘Womb’.” She read the word back to her. 

Snatching the book back, Byulyi almost whined, “Really? It doesn’t look right.” She tossed the book on a nearby table, “I am going to look like a complete idiot. Again!” 

“Why don’t we do the class together?” Yongsun suggested. 

“Really?” Byulyi looked at the Korean literature teacher with wide eyes. 

Nodding her head, Yongsun grinned, “Yeah, of course. That way we can show two different perspectives.”

“I think I’m in love with you.” Byulyi dramatically batted her eyelids which resulted in the older teacher to whack her shoulder a few times. 

___

Luckily for Byulyi, the class moved along without too many hiccups. The parents sat at the back of the glass shooting judgemental looks at her, but they softened after they realised Yongsun was helping out. 

Byulyi still doesn’t have a clue why parents dislike her. Their grades in her class are near perfect, none of her class has ever skipped a day of school and their enthusiasm to learn has been tripled since she was given the job. 

She understands why the other teachers don’t like her. She makes them look bad. Pupils praise Byulyi more than any other teacher, they choose history over every other subject just to be taught by her, they go out of their way to start a conversation with her. They don’t do this with other teachers. Especially Miss Park. 

But Yongsun is different. They both applied to work in the school at the same time and grew close to one another. Yongsun took all the negative things said about Byulyi and made them positive. Not that she’d ever admit it, but if it wasn’t for Yongsun, Byulyi would have quit years ago. 

As the students and parents began to leave her classroom, Byulyi grabbed onto Yongsun’s wrist gently. 

“Thank you.” She smiled, “I don’t know how I would have survived that without you.” 

“I’ve always got your back,” Yongsun replied, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear, “And besides, it wiped the smug smile off of Miss Parks face, so it was all worth it.”

Chuckling, Byulyi replied, “Oh it did, didn’t it? Her face when you walked in and began the lesson was amazing! I wish I had a camera.” 

“Shall we go meet the Australians?” Yongsun walked slowly to the door and opened it slightly. 

“Right behind you.”

Byulyi was grateful for many things in her life. She was grateful to her parents for giving her a wonderful upbringing, she was grateful to Hyejin for allowing her to move in to her apartment when she was struggling and now she’s grateful to whatever force helped her to meet Yongsun. Byulyi was taught that everything happens for a reason. Meeting Yongsun was fate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again thank you for the kudos and comments :)
> 
> If anyone wants to know what a power shower is in boarding school... google it... mainly only applies to male boarding schools but happens discretely in female ones. 
> 
> Until next time :)


	4. Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Byulyi has been roped into doing the school’s Christmas play. Not only does she have to deal with that, a mysterious man offers her something she’d be crazy to refuse.

Byulyi had no idea how she ended up in this situation, but she wasn’t complaining. After secretly pining after Yongsun for nearly a year, she finally convinced the older girl to go on a date with her. She doesn’t remember asking her, nor does she remember why she chose a water park, but as she finds herself trapped between a changing room stall wall and Yongsun, she doesn’t question anything. 

Yongsun’s lips weren’t anything Byulyi imagined them to be. Not that she was often fantasising about her colleagues lips, but she thought they’d be softer. She also imagined Yongsun to be a subtle kisser rather than rough and desperate. 

The older girls hand caressed Byulyi’s face slightly before inching lower. As they were half way through changing into swim wear, Byulyi was wearing a pair of Korean National Team soccer shorts and a sports bra, so Yongsun had no problems reaching into her shorts. 

Before anything exciting happened, though, a door was slammed open starting Byulyi. She opened her eyes and found herself asleep at her desk in the middle of a class. The class, who was also fast asleep at their desks, snapped their heads up. 

“And that, class, is how quiet Anne Frank’s family had to be to avoid detection from the Nazi’s.” The class nodded back at their teacher who discretely rubbed her eyes. 

“Miss Moon,” the delightful voice of Miss Park dully rang around the room, “A word outside, please?” 

Byulyi groaned as she stood up, “Right, class. Open your text books to chapter twenty and start familiarising yourself with the Korean War of 1950. Irene, you’re in charge.”

The student in question looked delighted as she grabbed her own textbook and skipped to the front of the class. As she was arguably the most feared and the smartest among them, she was always the perfect fit for Byulyi to stick in charge whenever she had to go somewhere. 

As soon as the sliding door to her classroom was shut, Byulyi finally acknowledged the older teacher. Usually she dressed head to toe in completely black attire, but today she has on a rather fitting beige pantsuit. 

Byulyi couldn’t help the snort that came out, “Why are you dressed like Hilary Clinton?” 

“I’m going to ignore that,” Miss Park said, “And I’m going to ignore the fact that you were asleep at your desk during a lesson. As you know the headmaster has gone on a few training days and has left me in charge.”

“Right,” Byulyi slowly responded, “You know you can’t sack me, right? I already asked the headmaster and he said you don’t have that power.” 

Miss Park rolled her eyes, “I know. But I’m not here to banter with you, I’m here under the orders of the headmaster himself.” At this, Byulyi straightened slightly, “The drama teacher has had to take some sick leave after having a very public mental breakdown a few days ago, but unfortunately we still have the end of year Christmas production to do and the headmaster has asked you to take over in the other teachers absence.” 

“No!” Byulyi moaned and stomped her feet like a child, “I can’t do it!” 

“Why? The headmaster said you had previous experiences with high school plays.”

“I told the headmaster three years ago when we were drunk that I was cast in my schools production of Romeo and Juliet and I was terrible!” The younger teacher protested, “The school newspaper said how bad I was and they weren’t allowed to give bad reviews. Even my own mother booed me off the stage.”

Turning around, Miss Park yelled over her shoulder, “It’s not negotiable, Miss Moon! You have two weeks.” 

Byulyi stuck her tongue out to the older teacher and waved her middle finger in her direction before stomping back into her classroom and slumping down in her chair by her desk. The class stared at her, waiting for her to say what Miss Park wanted. 

“Are you going to say anything, or what?” Sunghyuk asked when the silence in the room was too much. 

“I am now a drama and history teacher apparently.” Byulyi moaned. 

“What happened to Mrs Son?” Seulgi asked. 

Kitae, one of Byulyi’s more quieter students, spoke up, “She had a very public breakdown in her car last week, she cut off most of her hair and put on an Adele album with the volume on full. I think it took Miss Kim forty minutes to calm her down though.” 

“What made her have a breakdown?” Jisung asked. 

Kitae just shrugged in response. 

“She caught her husband in bed with one of his university students,” Byulyi answered without thinking before her eyes widened, “Shit, I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone. Please don’t gossip about Mrs Son, otherwise Miss Kim will murder me.” 

After getting a few mumbles from her class, Byulyi finally decided to start the lesson. Luckily it was a two hour class. 

“Right guys, so in the new term we will be learning a lot more about the division of Korea and we will be having an exam at the end,” The class groaned, “Stop moaning! I’m dividing the class into two different sections. Everyone on the left turn your desks to face the people on your right and everyone on the right turn and face those on your left.”

The students did as they were told and soon enough they were segregated into two separate groups. Byulyi walked down the middle and placed two medium flags on the wall at the back of the classroom. 

“You guys,” she pointed at the side Seulgi, Jisung and Irene were on, “Are North Korea. And you guys,” She pointed to the other side which Sunghyuk, Olivier and Kitae were on, “Are South Korea. As you can see I have stuck a line on the floor which will represent the boarder between the two countries and as of right now in this classroom, the Korean war has started.”

As if on queue, Sunghyuk tossed a rolled up piece of paper at one of the boys on North Korea’s side. 

“What was the point?” Byulyi asked the lad. 

“You said the war started! I launched a nuclear bomb!” Sunghyuk defended himself. 

Sighing, Byulyi made her way to the front of the classroom, “Okay. One, this war isn’t a nuclear war so get that out of your head right away and two, you’re South Korea. We don’t have nuclear weapons anyway.” 

The rest of the class went by in relative silence. The most interesting thing that happened was Miss Park interrupting her lesson to inform her that she is to meet with the drama club during break to discuss the play. 

Byulyi was visibly unhappy at being forced into doing the play. Not only did she have next to no experience in acting or performing, she also wasn’t familiar with any sorts of Christmas plays. Luckily for her, the drama club had already decided on which performance they’d be doing this year. Unluckily for her, the drama club did not like the history teacher after she very loudly said that they were the most talentless group of actors she’s ever seen. 

Walking rather timidly into the drama classroom, the loud chatter inside immediately stopped once Byulyi walked inside. A few senior students glared at her as she entered, but she didn’t let it faze her. Instead she confidently strolled to the teachers desk and hopped on top of it. 

“Right,” she began, clapping her hands once, “So apparently I have to do this play thing with you guys and I’m not going to lie to you, I am completely out of my depth so I’m just going to supervise without actually doing anything.” 

The students did not look satisfied with her. They stood up defiantly and grabbed their belongings. One student commented, “We only came to tell you that we refuse to do this play with you in charge.”

“Why?” Byulyi was dumbfounded. 

“Because you called us talentless hacks!” The same student yelled. 

“You called me a dickhead who couldn’t hold a note to save my life.” Another student huffed. 

“You tried it on with my mother!” A girl from the back angrily said. 

Shaking her head, Byulyi stood up, “I did not try it on with your mother. Her foot kept rubbing my leg during parents evening so I pushed it away.” 

“Either way, we’re not doing it.” The first student who spoke up walked casually towards the exit. The other pupils followed her as though she was a messiah. 

Byulyi groaned loudly once the door was slammed closed. Walking round to the other side of the teachers desk, she rooted around for the Christmas play’s script. After trapping her fingers in the desk drawers a few times, she finally found the script she was expected to get the now none existent drama club to perform in less than two weeks. 

“The Nut Cracker?” Byulyi asked no one as she read the title, “God why does this sound like a porno?” 

She spent the rest of the break reading the incredibly dull script before the bell rang and she had to sprint to the other side of the building to try and make it on time for her ninth grade class. 

____

“The Nut Cracker?” A soft voice startled her. 

Instead of heading to the staff room during lunch, Byulyi opted to stay in her empty classroom and try to familiarise herself with the script. 

“Oh, hey Yongsun.” Byulyi smiled towards the older teacher as she took a seat on Byulyi’s desk. 

“They asked you to do the play?” Yongsun asked whilst snatching the script from Byulyi’s hands. 

Nodding, the younger teacher groaned, “Yes. I’ve never seen The Nut Cracker and after reading this poorly put together script, I’ll probably never see it.” She leaned back in her chair before a small lightbulb went off in her head, “Hey, you’re the literature teacher! Why didn’t they ask you?” 

Sighing, Yongsun answered, “They did ask me. I said no. I love The Nut Cracker, but I’ve agreed to take over most of Mrs Son’s classes during my own free periods and their grades matter more to this school than some silly Christmas play.”

“True,” Byulyi agreed, “It doesn’t matter anyway because the drama club quit.” 

“What? Why?”

“Well, over the years I may have called them talentless, dickheads and I also may have tried to sleep with one of their mothers,” Byulyi counted off her fingers, “In my defence they are talentless dickheads. And that girl’s mother was rubbing my leg under the table during parents evening. It’s not my fault I thought she wanted a piece of Moonbyul. Turns out she just wanted better grades for her kid.” 

“Ouch. So, what are you going to do?” Yongsun asked whilst handing back the script. 

Tossing the script on her desk, Byulyi stood up, “I’m going to beg my eleventh grade class to do it and promise them a McDonald’s breakfast on the day of the play.” 

“You rely on them too much.”

Before Byulyi had the chance to reply, a knock at the door interrupted them. The schools main receptionist entered with a rather classy looking man behind her. 

“Miss Moon, you have a very persistent visitor.” She gestured to the mystery man. 

“I’ll leave you to it,” Yongsun winked as she hopped down from the desk, “If you ever want to actually watch The Nut Cracker, I have it on DVD.” 

Yongsun and the receptionist walked out together, both chatting animatedly with one another. The unknown man strolled forward confidently and held his hand out in greeting. Byulyi took his hand as they both bowed slightly at one another. 

“Miss Moon, my name is Mr Lee,” He rose his head and smiled handsomely at the history teacher, “I’m a recruitment officer for Saint Matthews Academy for girls.”

Byulyi knew the school well. But when she attended it, it was called Saint Matthews Boarding School. She was locked in every storage room at least once in the five years she attended that school and even a few toilet cubicles. 

When Byulyi didn’t respond to him, Mr Lee continued, “We have been monitoring your teaching standards for a few years and we are greatly impressed by the exam results of your students.” He held out a letter, “We are looking for a Head of History at our school and would like to offer the position to you. The benefits will include a significant increase to your current salary, a house of your own on the schools grounds of which requires no rent to be paid, a full uniform and a unique subscription to various online streaming sites to assist in your teachings.” 

Byulyi was speechless as she accepted the letter. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, not knowing what to say or how to react. The school was located on the Western side of Incheon whereas her current school was in the North East of Seoul. 

“Can I think about it?” She eventually stammered out. 

The man smiled warmly at her, “Of course. Inside that letter is my phone number and the location of my office within the school grounds should you decide to visit us for a tour. But, you’ll already know where everything is considering you were a pupil once upon a time,” He began making his way to her classrooms door, “I will need an answer by the end of January at the latest so at least you’ll now have a month and a half to come up with a decision.” 

Byulyi walked him to the front of the building where the reception was located. Mr Lee’s overly excited chatter was drowned out by her own conflicting thoughts. 

Should she take up the offer? What would this mean for her current classes? How would Hyejin react to her moving away? What about Yongsun? 

She shook her head subtly as Mr Lee disappeared out of the front doors of the reception. Her and Yongsun were only friends. She should not be a deciding factor in Byulyi’s career choices. 

_______

The next time Byulyi welcomed her 11th grade class into her classroom was last period on the following Wednesday. The class wore uneasy expressions on their faces when Byulyi opened the door to welcome them inside. 

“Hello class!” She eagerly greeted them. They knew something was wrong the minute she smiled warmly at them. Usually she left the door open for the students to just waltz in, but this time she wanted to personally greet them as they passed her by. 

“She wants something.” Sunghyuk mumbled to Olivier. 

“Do not trust her.” Olivier muttered back. 

The class eyed her uncertainly from their desks as she stood at the head of the room. Their desks were already moved so that the left side were facing the right side and vice versa. 

“What do you want?” Sunghyuk voiced his concern. 

“I need a favour,” Byulyi began, “I may have fucked up with the drama club and they’re on strike.”

Jisung snorted, “You were an asshole to them, you mean?” 

“Yes, but I was a correct asshole.” Byulyi held out a finger, “Everything I said to and about them was correct. Some people just can’t handle the truth.”

The class broke out in uncertain mumbles. A number of pupils were glancing at their teacher before quickly restoring their gaze back down to their desks. 

“So what do you want from us?” Irene eventually broke through the constant inaudible mumbling. 

Byulyi gave the class the most charming smile she could muster, “Well, I need you all to go to the theatre after school so you can audition to be a part of this play.” 

“What play is it?” Sunghyuk yelled out. 

“The Nut Cracker.” Byulyi held up the script. 

Half the class was happy with the play, the other half was furious. 

“No.” Sunghyuk crossed his arms over his chest in defiance. 

“Come on guys,” Byulyi moaned, “This is probably going to be the last Christmas play I’ll see at this school, make the effort for me.”

Twenty pairs of eyes snapped up to their teacher. 

“What do you mean ‘last Christmas play’?”

“You didn’t get fired did you?”

“Are you leaving?”

Byulyi could barely make out the questions that were being yelled at her across her classroom. She held up a hand to silence the outraged cry’s from her students. 

“I got a job offer at a different school.” She began, “It’s more money and honestly, it’s a better opportunity for my career.”

Seulgi looked mortified, “You’re not actually going to leave us, are you? We only have one year left before we graduate.”

Nodding her head, the teacher replied, “I think I will take it. Nothing’s keeping me here and like you’ve just said, Seulgi, you guys graduate next year. I don’t want to end up with nothing if I turn down the job offer. Which is why I really want to do this play with you guys.”

“Fine,” Sunghyuk concedes, “But can we do something else besides The Nut Cracker?” 

“Listen, I don’t want to do The Nut Cracker either.” Byulyi tossed the script back on her desk, “I’d rather do something cool like RoboCop. But we only have two weeks to learn lines and whatever else comes with acting.”

“Why don’t we put it to a vote?” Sunghyuk asked, “All those who want to do RoboCop raise your hand.” Ten students held their hands in the air, “and all those who want to do The Nut Cracker, raise your hand.” The other ten students in the class held up their hands. 

“Since when did my classroom become a democracy?” Byulyi sighed, “I suppose we can do a RoboCop themed Nut Cracker. We could call it RoboCracker. But someone’s going to have to change the script.”

Sunghyuk waved his hand in the air, “I’ll do it.”

“Some else?”

“Do you not trust me?”

“Sorry I thought the answer was obvious.” Byulyi deadpanned to the boy, “No.” 

Seulgi agreed then to redo the script with the help of Kitae. Two people Byulyi genuinely trusted not to mess up. They managed to change nearly a quarter of the play and completed the new character list. 

As soon as the bell rang to signal the end of the school day, Byulyi took her class to the theatre hall to audition for the new play. Kitae acted as Byulyi’s assistant and sat with her halfway down the seating area. 

Olivier and Sunghyuk were the first to audition. They re-enacted a fight scene from some action movie they once watched which ended up with them actually physically fighting and being pulled apart by a few other students. They walked off the stage laughing to one another. 

Seulgi was the second to audition, she brought a chair on stage with her and sat down on it crossing her legs with a fake cigarette in her hand - at least Byulyi hoped it was fake.

“You’re reenacting a scene from a film?” Kitae asked. 

“Yes.” Seulgi winked. 

“What film?” Byulyi asked. 

“Basic Instinct.”

Byulyi’s face scrunched up in slight confusion. She’s heard of the film before, but couldn’t remember what it was about. Looking over at Seulgi suddenly uncrossing her legs, the realisation hit her like a train. She smacked a hand over her eyes and used her spare hand to cover Kitae’s eyes before either of them saw anything incriminating. 

“Close your legs, Seulgi.” Byulyi’s panicked voice rang out, “Next! Next!” Her voice broke. 

After a few more good auditions, Jisung finally came on stage. Byulyi had been looking forward to watching him more than anyone else. A natural performer. Byulyi recognised his performance from the film The Black Swan. He was graceful and dominating. There was no doubts who the lead of the play was. 

“Jisung you didn’t even need to audition, of course you’re going to be in the play.” Byulyi gushed to the slightly blushing student. 

Just as Jisung began to leave the stage, another student stomped on. He wasn’t in Byulyi’s class but demanded an audition too. 

“Daemin?” Kitae’s suddenly panicked voice whispered across to Byulyi, “Please don’t give him a part, Byul. He once lathered me in butter and squeezed me into my locker.” 

Byulyi shook her head, “I won’t. He once stole my shoes and then tied them to my car bonnet. Took me two days to get them off.”

On stage Daemin turned to Jisung, “That was really good.” He awkwardly complimented. 

“Oh,” Jisung was obviously taken back by actual kind words leaving Daemin’s mouth, “Thank you.”

“Don’t make a big deal out of it.” He snapped and barged past Jisung. 

Byulyi smiled in the most plastic way she could as she greeted the schools delinquent. He ungraciously walked to the centre of the stage holding a piece of paper in front of him. 

Kitae refused to speak to Daemin. Byulyi sighed, “Are you singing? Dancing? Or acting?” 

“Acting.” The permanent scowl across his face didn’t waver as he spat out his words. 

“Go ahead.” 

He took a few deep calming breaths before almost screaming out, “Where is my Romeo? What’s here? A cup, closed in my true loves hand.” He yelled every word ridiculously fast. Byulyi’s eyes widened at how aggressive he sounded. He continued, “Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end!” 

Byulyi held a hand over her mouth and whispered across to Kitae, “He sounds like he’s taking a shit.” 

“I will kiss thy lips!” His voice cracked slightly under the weight of the volume he was reciting at. 

“Right, good.” Byulyi began once Daemin was silent for a few seconds, “Let’s start with the positives, volume. It was very loud. I heard every single word,” her voice quietened down so she could mutter the last few words, “As did the whole of Seoul.” 

“What part am I going to play.” Daemin’s usual deep and menacing voice was back. 

“Unfortunately, Daemin, there are a lot of really good actors auditioning-“

“What part?” 

“I’m sorry but there is no part for you.” Byulyi began sinking low on her chair as if it could protect her from Daemin’s wrath. 

“What. Part?” He demanded slowly. 

Byulyi could see her life flash before her eyes. She felt like she was back in school getting picked on by the older girls. 

“The lead?” She squeaked out. 

“What?!” Jisungs outraged voice was heard behind her. She turned her head to him and noticed half her class was standing behind her. 

“The co-lead?” Her voice wasn’t any less squeaky. 

“Tu es tellement lâche.” Olivier shook his head. 

“Yes!” Byulyi sat up straight, “Like in 21 Jump Street. Thanks Olivier.” 

Byulyi did not understand French, much to Oliviers delight. But she always took Olivier’s insults and created her own meaning the the French students words. 

Once the auditions were over, Byulyi and Kitae took ten minutes to assign everyone their parts and draw up a rehearsal schedule for the next two weeks. Unfortunately for the students the schedule was every day after school. 

___________

The day of the play swung by quicker than they had planned. Not only did they have to prepare for the play, they also had to prepare for the end of year party that always followed on after the play ended. Yongsun had helped whenever she could and spent most of her spare time creating costumes with the pupils who weren’t picked for roles. Byulyi promised to drive her home and to buy her food after the party was finished as a thank you. 

The history teacher had appointed herself as narrator of the play - mainly because she did not trust any of the students with it. As she stood on stage her eyes would occasionally drift to the Korean Literature teacher only to quickly look elsewhere whenever Yongsun would make eye contact. 

As always, Sunghyuk and Olivier messed around on stage which got a lot of laughs from the audience, but also got a lot of angry glares from their teacher. 

“Stop fucking around!” She aggressively whispered at them when they began play fighting. 

Luckily Daemin and Jisung worked well together. Daemin was a lot less screamy whilst he was in scenes with the other boy. Jisung was dressed as RoboCracker and Daemin was the little boy who was given RoboCracker as a Christmas present. They were both fighting evil around the world by dancing. Byulyi didn’t understand the plot, but she did not care. 

During a very awkward fight scene with Jisung fighting with Sunghyuk and Olivier, a small poof went off on stage and all three boys collapsed. The stage went dark and when the lights went back on only Daemin and Jisung remained. Jisung was lying on the floor and Daemin cradling his head. 

“Where is my Romeo?” Daemin began, softer than his audition. 

Byulyi looked down at her script, confused, then looked around for Kitae who just shrugged at her. ‘That’s not in the script.’ She mouthed to her assistant. ‘I know.’ He mouthed back. 

“Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end.” Daemin almost whispered, “I will kiss thy lips; happily some poison yet doth hang on them.” The whole audience was hanging on the edge of their chairs completely at awe of the two boys on stage. Even Yongsun, who knew the ending, held her hand over her chest. 

“Thy lips are warm.” To Byulyi it genuinely sounded like Daemin was about to cry, maybe he wasn’t a bad actor after all, “Let me die.” 

“Alas, there’s no hope,” Byulyi’s soothing voice called out from the narrators booth, “no treatment, no drug. As RoboCrackers life fades away Daemin bids farewell with a hu-“ 

Daemin surprised every single person in the theatre hall by kissing Jisung instead of hugging him. 

“Hug!” Byulyi stammered into her microphone. The two boys stayed in their position on stage with a few angry looking parents glaring towards Byulyi, “Hug! The script says hug!” She held up the script. 

Daemin and Jisung still hadn’t moved and after a few seconds of a torturously tense awkward atmosphere, Byulyi cleared her throat loudly and tossed a rolled up piece of paper at Daemin’s head. 

When they finally broke apart, Byulyi continued with the play, “But what is this? RoboCracker has been brought back to life and finally he’s a real boy! The end.” 

The audience gave the play a standing ovation. The students began to make their way to the dining hall to start off the party whereas the parents went home instead with promises that they’ll come back once the party was finished. 

Byulyi congratulated her class on a great performance and even gave Daemin a warming smile. 

“You guys did amazingly, I’m so proud of every one of you. If this truly is my last Christmas at this school, then I’m glad I got to spend it with you guys.” She bowed to them all, slight tears in her eyes. 

“We still don’t want you to leave.” Seulgi pouted, actual tears making their way down her porcelain face. 

Hugging the shorter girl, Byulyi replied, “There’s nothing keeping me in Seoul, I might as well give this new school a try.” 

Sunghyuk laughed slightly as he said, “Think of the positives, when Miss goes she won’t be your teacher anymore.” 

Byulyi’s arms dropped faster than the speed of light and she scrambled away from her student, “Seulgi, it’s still illegal.” 

“Plus she’s still obsessed with Miss Kim.” Jisung piped up. 

“I’m not.” Byulyi denied, “But even that doesn’t matter anymore, probably won’t see her at all when I move.” 

After the solemn atmosphere dampened their spirits slightly, Byulyi ordered them to go to the hall and enjoy themselves as much as they could. The teacher stayed behind to clean up the stage before she’ll make her way to the party. The silence helped her think over her decision. Everyone in her life besides her class told her to go for it. Even Hyejin, who hasn’t stopped crying about her best friend leaving her, told her to do it. 

_________

The party was in full swing. Students were dancing, chatting and laughing. Yongsun stood off to the side slowly drinking her cup of punch and just watching the students unwind and enjoy themselves. 

The only clump of students that were moping around were Byulyi’s class. They were sat in the corner of the room not talking and glaring at the ground. Yongsun looked around for any sign of their teacher before heading towards them. 

“Hey guys, great performance.” She smiled towards the students. They mumbled their thanks before turning back to the floor. Yongsun frowned before asking, “What’s wrong?”

“It’s Miss Moon.” Seulgi looked as though she was about to cry. 

Panic hit Yongsun as she almost yelled out, “Why? What’s happened? Is she okay? Where is she?” 

The students all looked at one another before turning to the teacher, “She hasn’t told you?” Sunghyuk asked. 

“Told me what?” Yongsun shook her head. 

“Miss Moon is leaving after this school year ends.” Seulgi actually began to cry softly, Irene wrapped her arms around her best friend. 

“Is she?” Yongsun gasped. 

Seulgi nodded, “She got a better job offer and she said nothing is keeping her in Seoul so she’s going to take it.” 

Yongsun could feel her heart break at that. She downed her punch and slumped into a chair between Seulgi and Jisung. The depressing atmosphere almost darkened their corner and no other student dared to interfere. 

When Byulyi eventually entered the hall, she made herself a cup of punch before downing it to quench her thirst after cleaning up a majority of the theatre hall. She made herself another when she spotted her class. She eyed the empty cup in Yongsun’s hand before pouring one for her colleague as well. 

She almost bounced towards the group completely oblivious to the sad atmosphere that surrounded them. She handed over Yongsun’s cup and took a huge gulp of her own drink before one of her favourite songs came on. 

“Guys let’s dance!” She yelled over the music. Her students looked up at the shit eating grin that was on their teachers face and jumped up. If this was going to be their last party with their favourite teacher, they were going to make the most of it. 

After a few more cups of punch were greedily downed by both teachers, Byulyi began to feel weird. Like she was floating on a cloud. 

“I feel drunk.” She slurred to Yongsun. 

“Me too.” Yongsun giggled back. 

“That’s because I spiked the punch.” Sunghyuk grinned and held out a bottle of Absolute Vodka. 

Byulyi grinned back at him, “I’m gunna pretend I didn’t hear that.” 

Yongsun grabbed Byulyi’s shoulders and forced her to face her, “I don’t want you to go!” She yelled over the music. 

“What?” Byulyi asked. 

“The job offer, turn it down and stay here with me.” Yongsun’s hands went from grabbing at Byulyi’s shoulders to linking up with each other around Byulyi’s neck. 

“How did you know?” The history teacher asked. 

Yongsun leaned closer to her and rested their foreheads together, “Your class told me,” she whispered, “I don’t want you to go.”

It all happened too quickly for Byulyi to process. One second their foreheads were resting against each other and the next Yongsun leaned in and kissed her. Her lips were soft and warm. Byulyi wrapped her arms around Yongsun’s waist, pulling her in closer. The kiss was innocent and slow but it still conveyed the feelings that both women felt for one another. 

Maybe it lasted ten seconds, maybe it lasted an hour. Who knows. But when Yongsun pulled away and looked into the hazy eyes of Byulyi, she panicked. She pushed Byulyi away gently before stumbling around and grabbing her bag. She practically ran out of the hall and left a gaping Byulyi behind her. 

Byulyi just stared at the door she disappeared from, unsure at what to do. It wasn’t until Irene gently pulled on her arm that she realised time didn’t stop. 

“What are you doing?” Irene asked. 

“Go after her!” Olivier demanded. 

Sunghyuk pushed Byulyi in the direction of the door, “Miss stop standing there looking like a child who’s just been told Santa isn’t real, go after her! She is your reason to stay here!” 

Byulyi blinked a few times before nodding her head, “Yeah.” She whispered, “Yeah!” She yelled, “Yong!”

The teacher sprinted out of the hall as fast as her drunk legs could carry her. She bounced off the walls and ran into closed doors as she made her way to the front of the school in search of Yongsun. As soon as the cold winter air hit her face when she finally made it outside, she saw the back end of a taxi leaving the parking lot. 

“Yong!” She yelled out. 

The person in the back of the taxi looked back at Byulyi but made no attempts to stop the driver. Instead they stared at each other until the car made a right turn and disappeared into the night. 

“Was that my chance, Yong?” Byulyi whispered before crumpling up on the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long. Lmk that you’re still reading with a lovely comment :)


	5. Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s the Christmas holidays and Byulyi is desperate to take her mind off Yongsun. Fortunately she has her family and the rest of the losers club to cheer her up - or make things worse

Byulyi walked back to her shared apartment shortly after ten in the evening. Her students found her moping around outside after Yongsun’s taxi sped off into the night. They brought her back inside and tried their hardest to cheer up their favourite teacher. 

Unfortunately due to Sunghyuk spiking the punch, Byulyi had to brave the light snowstorm and make her way back home by foot. She would have called Hyejin to pick her up, but she needed the fresh air to help sober her up. 

Hyejin was lounged leisurely on the couch by the time Byulyi stumbled into the living room. Wheein, Hyejin’s childhood friend, was also sat on the couch. Byulyi flopped down onto the spare space on their L shaped grey couch and groaned loudly. 

“Byul?” Hyejin asked, after getting nothing in return she continued, “I’m sorry Byul. I heard what happened.” 

The teacher whipped her head around in her direction, “How?”

Holding up her phone, Hyejin answered, “I follow Jisung on Twitter. He live tweeted the whole thing and even took a picture of you lying on the floor feeling sorry for yourself.” 

Snatching the phone from her friends hand, Byulyi sighed, “That’s actually a great photo of me. God that boy is so talented.” 

“Want to talk about it?”

“Nope.” Byulyi shook her head and sat up into a sitting position on the couch, “I do, however, want to talk about all this shit that’s in my living room though.” 

Inside of her living room were boxes upon boxes full of someone’s belongings, two kayaks, an inflatable boat, four boxes of half opened wine bottles and two suitcases. Byulyi almost tripped over the suitcases before she flopped down onto the couch. 

“Wheein’s moving in,” Hyejin’s face formed a tight smile, “Isn’t it wonderful?” 

“I broke up with Jungkook and I need somewhere to live.” Wheein explained, “That reminds me, Hyejin we need to go back to his to pick up the rest of my stuff.” 

‘The rest?’ Byulyi mouthed to Hyejin who averted her eyes to avoid the angry expression on her friends face. 

Wheein and Jungkook were in an off again on again relationship. Wheein moved in with her boyfriend three years ago and consistently ‘broke up’ with him every two months only to get back together a day or two later. Byulyi couldn’t keep up with them. 

“You say you’ve broken up, but I bet you slept together this morning.” 

“Well, yeah we did,” Wheein admitted, “But he did it from behind so I didn’t have to look at him. That’s how he knows he’s pissed me off.” 

Byulyi tried not to laugh at her friend, “I think you’re sending him mixed messages, Wheein.” 

“Whatever.” The other girl rolled her eyes before jumping up from her seat and heading to the bathroom. 

“She cannot stay.” Byulyi whisper-screamed across to Hyejin. 

“Where else is she supposed to go?” Hyejin replied. 

“I don’t care! This two bedroom apartment isn’t big enough for three people! Especially ones who bring fucking kayaks! Who needs kayaks? This is Seoul not the fucking Amazon!” 

Hyejin scooted closer to the teacher on the couch, “I will admit that she’s brought too much random shit, but Byul, I’ve known her since before I can remember. It’ll be fun, us all living together! It’ll be just like boarding school but without the bullies!” 

Byulyi snorted, “Does that mean we can all power shower again?”

“Byul, I power showered with you once and it wasn’t good. The other girls definitely overrated you.” Hyejin stood up and stretched out her limbs, “I’m not making that mistake again.” 

“Plus you have a boyfriend.” Byulyi added as she also stood up and began moving Wheein’s stuff into the small corner of the room. 

Hyejin hesitated slightly before answering, “No I don’t.” 

The teacher stopped what she was doing and turned to face her friend, “You broke up with Seokjin? Why? He was the nicest man I’ve ever met.” 

“Yes, he was nice and kind and attentive and always goes out of his way to cheer me up,” Hyejin began, “and, Byul, I’ve never been so fucking bored in all my life.” 

Sighing, Byul pouted, “Poor Seokjin, how did he take it?” 

“I don’t know, I haven’t actually told him yet,” after getting a judgemental look from her friend, Hyejin continued, “Don’t look at me like that, what am I supposed to do? Look into his kind eyes and tell him it’s over?” 

“Well, yes. That’s what reasonable adults would do.” 

“Oh god no. I’m going full coward. I’m ghosting the shit out of him.” 

“You’re ignoring him?” Byulyi asked in disbelief, “He deserves better than that.”

Hyejin made her way towards the hall, “I’m not ignoring him, I’m ignoring his texts and calls. That’s what ghosting is, Byul.” 

Before Byulyi had the opportunity to reply, Wheein poked her head out from the bathroom, “Can anyone unblock a toilet? The water’s overflowing.” 

Once the shorter girl headed back inside the bathroom, Byulyi turned to her old school friend, “She needs to go and you need to be the one to tell her. You have until I get back from my parents on the thirtieth.” 

____________

“What about Minhyuk?” Byulyi’s mother asked her after their Christmas meal. 

It’s tradition in the Moon household to host a party on Christmas Day for their whole family. It used to be fun for Byulyi to see all her cousins in one place and be able to frolic with them to her hearts content. But now she’s older, seeing her cousins is a lot more depressing than it used to be. Especially because most of them are married and have children of their own leaving Byulyi looking like a spinster. 

Yes, she’s only twenty eight, but unfortunately twenty eight is the new seventy eight. Her aunts and uncles that judged her growing up are certainly enjoying ridiculing her about her current marital status. Even her mother has started pitying her. 

“Minhyuk?” Byulyi repeated, “You are aware that he’s my cousin.” 

“So? It worked for your aunt and uncle, they’re very happy.” Byulyi’s mother waved a dismissive hand. 

Rolling her eyes, Byulyi replied, “Yes, but their son isn’t! Anyway, mother, I’ve told you before I’m a lesbian, I only like girls.” 

“Oh, I thought you were bilingual.”

“You mean bisexual and no I’m not,” Byulyi sighed, “That’s Wheein.” 

“Which one of you is the one with the obsession with cookware?” Her mother took a swig of green tea. 

“What?”

“You know, the pan enthusiast?” 

Facepalming, Byulyi replied, “Oh, mother. You mean pansexual and it doesn’t mean she has an obsession with pans! I like that you’re making an effort, but you’re coming across a little offensive.” Rubbing her eyes, she continued, “That’s Hyejin.” 

Her mother’s face brightened up, “Oh Hyejin!” She lightly smacked Byulyi’s shoulder, “When are you going to bring her here? I miss her.” 

“You could always visit us,” Byulyi suggested just as her younger sister, Seulgi sat down, “You’re always welcome.” 

Her mother scoffed loudly, “I cannot visit your apartment after what happened last time I was there.” 

“Mother, it was over two years ago! You have to get over it.” 

“I will not.” 

Seulgi grinned, “What happened two years ago?” 

“Mother decided to surprise me for my birthday and just burst into my apartment.” Byulyi explained, “Then she saw that I had a girlfriend.” 

“Wait.” Seulgi’s face was etched with confusion, “You refuse to go and see your eldest daughter because she’s gay?” 

“No, Seulgi, listen.” Byulyi scooted closer to her younger sister, “She saw that I had a girlfriend.” She put as much emphasis as she could on the word ‘saw’.

Mouth opening in shock, Seulgi began to laugh, “Mother, you walked in on her?” 

The woman in question nodded whilst sipping her tea. 

“I was dating Dahee at the time,” Byulyi began, “But she was a good sport about it, she said, ‘Hello Mrs Moon! Nice to meet you, would you like some strawberry jam? It’s low fat!’.”

The older woman set her tea back down and pretended someone in the corner of the room wanted her attention before bidding farewell to two out of her three daughters. As if on cue, the youngest Moon sibling slumped in the chair her mother just vacated. 

Despite being almost ten years younger than Byulyi, Yesol was very close to her older sibling. Yesol has dreams to become an actress but her parents did not approve and refused to help fund her ambitions. Instead of letting her youngest sibling give up on her dreams, Byulyi offered to pay for anything Yesol needed which included headshots and agent fees. 

Yesol held a hand over her face in an attempt to avoid the gaze of one of her relatives. 

“What are you doing?” Seulgi asked her younger sister. 

Taking the New York Yankees cap off of Byulyi’s head, Yesol shoved it on her own and turned her back to the rest of the people in the room, “Our creepy uncle keeps trying to talk to me.” 

“The one who gives five minute hugs?” Byulyi asked. 

“Yep.” Yesol grimaced. 

Byulyi looked over to the man in question who had roped an unfortunate cousin into a boring conversation. Presumably about life insurance. 

“He hasn’t spoken to me at all today,” the eldest began, “I think I’m too old for him.”

“Lucky you.” The two other siblings groaned. 

“How was your audition, anyway?” Byulyi asked her broody looking sister. 

“Don’t ask.” She mumbled. 

“Ouch, that bad?” 

Yesol chuckled grimly, “Seriously I’ve had the worst two weeks of my life.”

“I bet mine was worse.” Seulgi grumbled. 

“I actually hope you two have had worse weeks than me,” Byulyi laughed, “Tell me yours and then you can have mine as a dessert.”

“You go first.” Seulgi gestured to her younger sister. 

Sighing, Yesol answered, “I was auditioning for some action movie but on the day of the audition I was really sick and they took me to a room with a dummy in the corner and told me to run and punch it. But I was so sick that I stumbled towards it and slapped it. Then I apologised to it.” 

The two older siblings laughed straight in Yesol’s face causing the younger girl to smack their arms in frustration, “It’s not funny! After I apologised to it I threw up on it! Suffice to say I’m not allowed back to that production company.” 

“Your turn.” Byulyi turned to Seulgi. 

“Well, I finally moved in with my boyfriend and then four days later I moved out,” Seulgi began, “He said I was harder to live with than an erection at a funeral.” 

Grimacing slightly, Byulyi replied, “He’s not wrong.”

“Shut up.” Her sister snapped, “Anyway, after I moved out I ended up running him over with my car and before you ask, yes it was an accident but no I didn’t record it.” 

“Is that why he’s in a wheelchair?” Byulyi looked over her shoulder to see Seulgi’s boyfriend in a heated discussion with one of her uncles. “Seulgi, he told me he got shot.”

“He said it was less embarrassing than telling everyone that I ran him over whilst he was trying to help me squeeze into a parking spot.” Seulgi shrugged. 

“Come on, Byul, cheer us up with your depressing few weeks.” Her youngest sister urged. 

“Well,” Byulyi smacked her hands off her thighs and sat up straighter in her chair, “I got forced into helping out with the Christmas production in school after the teacher had a meltdown. Two boys kissed on stage and nearly every parent complained. When I get back to school I have to attend a meeting, but I’m unsure if the meeting is about those two or about the fact that another student spiked the punch during the schools end of year party.” 

“Then again,” Byulyi continued, “The meeting could be about the fact that my coworker got drunk off the spiked punch and kissed me in front of the whole school.” 

“Which coworker?”

Sighing, Byulyi grabbed an unopened beer bottle from the counter behind her and said, “Kim Yongsun.”

Both sisters perked up slightly before Yesol excitedly squealed, “Oh, isn’t that good? You never shut the fuck up about her.”

“No, it’s not good,” She replied angrily, “She won’t return my calls or messages, if you look at my phone I look like a crazy stalker! I have this fear that I’ll hear my messages read back to me in a court of law and the only thing I’ll have to remember Yongsun by is a restraining order. The only time she’s contacted me between the kiss and right now was when she wished me a happy birthday,” She downed the whole beer bottle in nearly ten seconds, “And to top it all off, I go onto the jolly old site of Facebook this morning and what did I find? Santa Claus bestowed upon her the gift of a boyfriend this Christmas whereas I got given socks with penis’ on.” 

Silence engulfed the three siblings before Seulgi cleared her throat, “I still think my week was worse.”

___________

Byulyi couldn’t wait to go back home and sleep in her own bed. Ever since she left Bucheon to head to the capital of South Korea, her parents transformed her childhood room into a walk in closet for her mother. So unless she wanted to sleep on top of a Louis Vuitton handbag with an Armani coat as a blanket, she had to share Yesol’s bedroom with Seulgi. 

They both snore. Violently. 

She didn’t let her lack of sleep effect the limited time she was able to spend with her family, however, and joined in with every activity they had planned. Her lack of sleep caught up with her eventually on Boxing Day where Yesol found her asleep inside a toilet cubical at a high end restaurant. 

If it wasn’t for the fact that Byulyi was already having a shit end of the year in the form of Kim Yongsun, Yesol would have posted the photos she took of her sister all over the internet. But, alas, she’ll have to save them for her Instagram birthday post next year. 

Byulyi stumbled into her apartment and yelled out a greeting. It was a test to see if Wheein was still there. She received no reply from anyone inside so she dumped her bags in the hall and headed to the living room. 

“Are you deaf?” Byulyi asked the two girls sat on the couch, both of them in pyjamas. 

“Nope,” Hyejin replied, “Just hungover.” 

Wheein sat up on the couch cradling her bowl of cereal, “Has Miss Kim texted you back yet?” 

Byulyi hadn’t even sat down before this question was thrust into her face. She knew it was coming after drunkenly ranting to Hyejin at one in the morning on Christmas Eve, but she at least thought they’d wait until after she’s had a nap. 

“No,” The teacher shrugged, “Doesn’t matter anyway, she now has a boyfriend.” 

“Ouch.” They both replied. 

“Yeah. Speaking of which,” She turned to Hyejin, “Have you ended things with your boyfriend yet?” 

Shaking her head, Hyejin tried to hide her face behind her cereal bowl, “Not exactly. Turns out Seokjin is immune to ghosting so I tried to take him to my dumping pub but he took me to this amazing restaurant instead and then we had sex.” 

“Oh for gods sake,” Byulyi groaned, “I thought you hated having sex with Seokjin.” 

“I don’t hate it, it just makes me cringe.” Hyejin explained as though it was the most simplest thing in the world, “I do sort of love him, I think over time it could blossom into actual love.” 

Wheein smirked, “Are you sure you love him? Are you sure you don’t just really love dinner?”

Whining, Hyejin stood up, “Oh god I am actually going to have to break up with him, aren’t I?” 

“Yes.” Byulyi yelled exasperatedly. 

Just as Hyejin stomped to the kitchen to deposit her bowl in the sink, a male presence made its way into the living room. Byulyi followed Jungkook from the doorway to the couch with her disbelieving eyes as he sat down next to Wheein wearing nothing but boxers and a white shirt. 

“Oh, I hope you don’t mind,” Wheein began as Hyejin quietly slipped back into the living room, “Jungkook stayed the night.” 

“Sure did.” He winked at Byulyi, “Wheein booty called me.” 

Clearing her throat angrily, Byulyi asked, “And where did you stay?” 

Wheein hesitated before standing up and pulling her boyfriend with her, “We’ll change your sheets.” 

As soon as the two were out of the room, Byulyi turned to her oldest and dearest friend who was trying to hide behind a couch cushion. 

“Why is she still here?” The neutral tone Byulyi used frightened Hyejin more than if she screamed it at her. 

“I couldn’t do it,” Hyejin answered, “She started crying and it was really boring and then I fell asleep.” 

“This is unacceptable.” Byulyi huffed, “I haven’t even had sex in that bed yet and now it’s been molested!”

Hyejin laughed slightly, “Byul, you can’t molest a bed.”

“It was an unwilling participant in a sexual encounter! At the very least it’s been sexually harassed.” Byulyi rubbed her eyes, “I just want to have a nap and now I can’t because I’m scared a used condom is going to fall on me.” 

“They don’t use condoms.”

“Great, so instead some of their leakages could have soaked into my mattress.” 

Hyejin had to force Byulyi to take a nap once the sheets on her bed were changed. Not that the teacher put up much of a resistance. As soon as the shorter girl pushed her down onto the mattress, she fell straight to sleep. 

She also kicked both Wheein and her boyfriend out so that Byulyi could have some peace and quiet once she woke up. To make up for the fact that Wheein was still living with them, Hyejin convinced Byulyi to go out to the bar and drinks would be on her all night. It was the day before New Years Eve and Hyejin wanted to make the most of their last few days of the year. 

“Come on!” Hyejin pleaded with her friend, “it’ll be fun! You’ll be able to get your mind off of Yongsun and your body under some random girl.” 

“I can’t pick up girls in bars.” Byulyi complained, “They all swarm to you or Wheein. No one is interested in me,”

“What are you talking about? You got three valentines cards last year!” 

Licking her lips, Byulyi sat up straight, “Yeah, it might have been more convincing had you not signed one ‘Love Hyejin.’” 

“What about the other two?”

“My student Seulgi gives me one every year and includes a pair of her underwear. I use two pens as chopsticks so I can toss them back at her without actually touching them.” Byulyi sighed, “I’m not looking forward to the pity flirting I’m going to get off her once school starts again.”

“Well, There’s still one card unaccounted for.” 

“That card was from me.” Byulyi shrugged. 

Hyejin stared at her in slightly disgusted disbelief, “You sent a card to yourself?” 

“Yes I did,” The teacher huffed as she began applying makeup to her face, “I also got myself flowers, then I made myself a nice romantic meal and made love to myself all night long.” 

“That’s exactly why you need to come out and feel the touch of a real woman.”

Byulyi gave up, “Fine. But the only person I’m going home with is you.” 

“Kinky.” Hyejin jumped to avoid a rogue fist from the taller woman, “I told you, I’ve experienced your power showers before and I’m not interested.” 

Half an hour flew by and before she knew it, Byulyi was heading to their local bar. The sun was just about to set and the party goers were scarce. They were meeting Wheein at the bar and were not shocked when she announced during a phone call that her and Jungkook have broken up once again and she was coming home with her two friends. 

Byulyi was complaining the whole walk over to the bar about sharing a room with her sisters and how badly they snore. She swears one of them farted too, but couldn’t get either of them to admit it. After talking to herself for nearly a whole minute, Byulyi noticed Hyejin had stopped walking with her. Instead the shorter girl was stood staring into the alley behind their bar. 

“Look!” She yelled at her friend. 

Byulyi jogged over to see what she was pointing to, “What?” 

“Free beer!” She excitedly jumped up and down. In front of them were about seven barrels of what Byulyi assumed was lager, “We can steal one, take it back to Seokjin’s workshop and drink as much as we want.”

“Pick it up, then.” Byulyi kept looking over her shoulder to see if anyone was curious as to what two women were doing together in a back alley. 

Hyejin stretched her arms before attempting to lift a barrel full of beer. It moved slightly before she leg go, “Turds.” She complained. 

“Well done!” Byulyi clapped, “That moved maybe a centimetre off the ground.”

“You try it! It’s heavy!” Hyejin rubbed her shoulder. 

Byulyi knew she wouldn’t be able to lift it, but she had to at least try and lift it more than Hyejin otherwise the teacher would never live it down. Holding on to the handles with a vice grip, Byulyi tried as hard as she could to at least get it to move an inch off the ground before giving up. Unfortunately for her, it didn’t move at all. 

“You’re awfully quiet for someone that chatted shit thirty seconds ago.” Hyejin wiggled a judgemental finger Byulyi’s way. 

Byulyi chose to not reply. Instead she waved over Wheein who was walking past the alleyway. 

“What’s up?” She asked them, “Why are we hiding in an alley? Have you stolen something?” 

“No, but we’re about to.” Hyejin winked, “This barrel! We just need to figure out how to move it.”

Just as Hyejin finished her sentence, Wheein lifted the barrel up and onto her shoulder as though it weighed nothing. The other two looked at her in complete astonishment before all three sprinted away and in the direction of Seokjin’s garage. 

Luckily he wasn’t working today and Hyejin had his spare keys on her set of personal keys. So getting in wasn’t a problem. Getting there was. 

Nearly three quarters of the way there, Wheein yelled at the other two, “Stop!”

“What?” Byulyi yelled back and did a tactical sweep of the area behind Wheein, “Is the bar manager behind us?”

“Yes, Byul, the bar manager is behind us,” Wheen let the barrel fall from her shoulders as she set it on the ground, “So I thought the only logical thing to do is to stop and let him catch up.” 

Hyejin looked confused, “Then why did you stop? We’re almost there.” 

“It’s fucking heavy!” The small woman yelled into the night air, “Have you ever carried one hundred pints of beer before?”

“Only in my bladder,” Byulyi remarked. 

Panting softly, Wheein asked, “Can one of you take over carrying it?”

“Wheein, I’m not even going to bother lying to you, I can’t lift that. My biceps are the same size as my wrists. I can barely hold my toothbrush.” Byulyi mumbled. 

Rolling her eyes at the teacher, Wheein rounded on Hyejin, “What about you?” 

“I would, but I hurt my hand.” Hyejin dramatically pointed at her left hand. 

“What about the other hand?”

“Oh hell no. That’s the hand I use to pleasure myself and others.”

Wheein was spitting fire as she hoisted the barrel back over her shoulder. She complained the whole way back to Seokjin’s garage and didn’t stop until the barrel was suspended in the air using various machinery. 

“How are we going to get it open?” Wheein asked the other two. 

“Wheein, look around you,” Hyejin span slowly in a circle, “We have tools.” 

After nearly an hour of unsuccessfully trying to crack open this barrel, Byulyi and Wheein had given up. Hyejin was still using power tools to try and get access to the free beer inside. 

Draped against the hood of a car, Wheein muttered, “Lets just go to the bar and pay for the drinks like adults.” 

Byulyi, who was sat on top of a stack of tyres, agreed, “Come on Hyejin, it’s won.”

Shaking her head, Hyejin jumped up and power walked to one side of the garage, “It hasn’t won.” She sprinted as fast as her feet could take her and threw herself at the metal barrel. 

Luckily for her, Byulyi grabbed her before she could do so much as to break a nail on the barrel. The drama of the situation was infectious. Hyejin was screaming at the barrel and Byulyi was screaming at Hyejin to calm down. Wheein took one look at the head of the barrel before pulling out a ball point pen from Seokjin’s desk. 

“I wonder,” she murmured to herself before sticking the pen into a hole and slamming it down. 

The contents of the barrel sprayed all over the face of Wheein and onto the floor. Byulyi grabbed onto the back of Wheein’s shirt and pulled her away from the barrel. 

“You’re wasting it!” Hyejin screeched as she pulled the pen out from the hole. 

“Byul, go and get a jug!” Wheein grinned as her mascara began to run down her face. 

After finding a jug and three cups inside the garages break room, the three women were ready to finally enjoy their free beer. Hyejin was stationed at the front with the jug, Byulyi was holding the barrel in place and Wheein was waiting for the go ahead to stick the pen back inside the barrel. 

“Go.” Hyejin commanded. 

They all cheered as the jug began to quickly fill, but their grins soon turned into grimaces after they inspected the jug. 

“It’s blue.” Wheein stated the obvious. 

Hyejin’s excited voice came back, “You know what this means? We’ve discovered blue beer!”

“It’s barrel wash, Hyejin.” Byulyi sighed. All that work for nothing. 

Pouring the blue liquid into the three cups, Hyejin dismissed Byulyi, “No, it’s blue beer! Look, I’ll try it!” She grinned as she downed her glass in one gulp. The grin didn’t waver as she beamed to the other two, “It’s absolutely delicious!”

“Seriously?” The two other girls said in unison as they also downed their own glasses. 

“Well?” Hyejin asked, her grin faltering. 

“It’s barrel wash, Hyejin.” Byulyi repeated. 

“Yeah,” She groaned, “I thought that we should all die together.” 

Wheein coughed, “We could probably use an antidote right about now.”

“Bar?”

“Bar.”

_________________

After becoming rather tipsy back at the bar, Hyejin swung her arm around her old school friends shoulders and gave her the worst pep talk Byulyi has ever received in her life. It involved fucking Yongsun, but not in the way the teacher would prefer. 

“What are you going to do once the new term starts?” She slurred into Byulyi’s ear. 

Byulyi thought for a second before replying, “Maybe I’ll just ignore her like how she ignored me.”

Hyejin quietly stole Wheein’s drink whilst she was off dancing with a few strangers, “You need to be careful.”

“Why?”

“You get weird whenever Yongsun gets a new boyfriend, that’s probably why she didn’t tell you about this one.”

“I do not!” Byulyi argued. 

Hyejin scoffed, “Remember sports day last year? I had to bring you a spare set of clothes and take you home?”

Byulyi grumbled in response. To be fair to her, the man Yongsun was dating last year was a creep. The older woman could only see how much of a creep he was once Byulyi had outed his shameful secret. And accidentally embarrassed herself in the process. 

Sighing, Byulyi called it a night and with an equally drunk Wheein, they dragged Hyejin home. She tossed and turned on her bed all night long, her mind going back to last years sports day. She hoped and prayed that she wouldn’t do anything as stupidly jealous and possessive as she did back then. But she doesn’t regret a single moment. Well, she regretted maybe one or two moments.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys :) good to know people are still reading and giving kudos. Many thanks to you all! There’s about 3 or 4 more chapters to go. 
> 
> I hope it’s keeping you all entertained during this pandemic :)


	6. Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flashback to Sports Day. Yongsun has someone she wants Byulyi to meet. Will Byulyi play nice with them or will she be an asshole to them instead?

“I’m thinking of getting a puppy,” Hyejin suddenly blurted out, “or maybe a snake. What do you think?”

Byulyi sighed from her place on the couch, “I think that because I haven’t spoken to you in two minutes, you’re making stuff up.”

“Byul, I’m bored.” She whined, “I’m dangerously bored. I considered sticking a knife in the toaster just to see what would happen.” 

“Death would happen,” Byulyi didn’t look away from the tv, “You could always go out and get a job. Then you won’t be bored.”

Hyejin flopped down on the floor, face down, “I tried, there’s literally no jobs available anywhere and I’m not going back to the hospital.”

“Why did you quit anyway? You were a great nurse.”

“Disgust at having to help people in need.” The shorter girl shrugged. 

The front door loudly slammed closed signalling the arrival of Wheein who angrily stomped into the living room. She shoved her phone on charge and helped herself to the cookies on the coffee table before flopping down beside Byulyi. 

“Jungkook’s fucking cousin is staying with us,” She began as she bit into a cookie, “He’s such a leech, uses all of our stuff and eats all our food! Doesn’t pay to replace anything he’s consumed either.”

Eyeing her friend for a few seconds, Byulyi eventually remarked, “Yeah, I can understand how annoying that would be.” 

“I can’t wait for him to break his parole.” The shorter girl grinned evilly, “As soon as he does, I’m phoning the police on him! And if Jungkook thinks I’m joking, I’ve got the number memorised!” 

“Everyone does.” Byulyi sighed.

“Can I stay here for a few weeks until he leaves?” Wheein pleaded using her famous puppy eyes, “I’ll be your little spoon again.” 

The teacher considered Wheein for a second before answering, “Sure, but what happens if I get lucky, then where will you sleep?” 

Looking into her friends eyes with a straight face, Wheein remarked, “So I can stay?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Speaking of getting lucky.” She turned to Hyejin, “Have you phoned Seokjin back yet?” 

“No.” Came Hyejin’s mumbled reply. 

Sighing, the shortest girl continued, “Well, can you hurry up and phone him. He’s building me a car and he said I can’t have it until you agree to go out on a date with him.” 

Byulyi sat up, “Why is he building you a car? You can’t drive.”

“Oh yeah?” Wheein’s eyes lit up as she took a piece of paper from her pocket and shoved it in Byulyi’s face, “What’s this then?”

Byulyi took it and examined it, “‘Cycling Proficiency.’” She read the title, “And, Wheein, it says you failed.”

Wheein snatched the paper back and grumbled something about stupid friends as she scrunched it back up in her pocket. 

____________

It was the weekend before sports day and Byulyi had been invited by Yongsun to a cafe to meet her new boyfriend. Yongsun had told her that her parents do not approve of the relationship but she didn’t know why.

As soon as the history teacher turned up at the cafe, she knew exactly why. 

She spotted Yongsun sat at a table in the far corner with a man stood next to her. Assuming he was the waiter, Byulyi smiled at him and took a seat. 

“Hi,” She greeted him, “Can we have two menu’s please?” 

Both the man and Yongsun gave Byulyi confusing stares before the man took a seat next to the older teacher. 

“Byul, he’s not our waiter, this is my boyfriend, Heung.” Yongsun smiled affectionately at the man next to her. 

“Oh.” Byulyi bowed her head slightly in apology before properly looking at the man sat next to the literature teacher. 

He looked an awful lot like Byulyi’s grandfather. Greying hair, ridiculously bushy eyebrows, wrinkles on every inch of skin on his face. He actually resembled a penguin with his bow tie, white shirt and black waistcoat. Byulyi was terrified that if she looked on the floor she’d see a... oh look, there it is; a walking stick. 

“You two girls order whatever you like.” Heung grinned at them, “I have coupons for this place.” 

Byulyi could feel her stomach churn, “I’m suddenly not hungry.” 

After a rather awkward conversation of Byulyi explaining why she didn’t have a boyfriend, Heung excused himself to head to the bathroom. As soon as the doors to the lavatory’s were closed, Yongsun’s expectant eyes were on her. 

“Well?” She asked. 

Not one to beat around the bush, Byulyi blurted out, “How old is he?” 

“I’m not sure, maybe sixty?” 

“SIXTY?!”

“Byulyi keep your voice down!”

The history teacher took a few deep breaths before continuing, “Yong, he’s old enough to be your grandfather!”

Yongsun rolled her eyes, “Don’t exaggerate! He’s nice and kind and-“

“And a cradle snatcher?”

“Byul, I’ve known him for years. He was my tutor in university.” 

“So, he groomed you? Sick fucker.” 

Yongsun stood up furiously, “Moon Byulyi, we are two consenting adults and what my boyfriend and I get up to in the privacy of our own homes should not infuriate you.” 

“You cannot call him your boyfriend! He’s not a boy. He’s an old man. He’s your old-man-friend!” Byulyi pointed behind Yongsun just as Heung vacated the bathroom, “He even has a walking stick!”

“It’s a cane!”

The two teachers glared at one another as the old man retook his seat next to Yongsun. He seemed oblivious to the two women as he took out a pair of glasses and put them on the bridge of his nose before cradling his phone in his left hand and using his right to swipe the screen. 

__________________

Byulyi did the most stupidest thing she could think of on Sunday. She went out to a bar with Hyejin and Wheein. A few drinks turned into a load more as men and women flocked to their table in an effort to try and convince one of the three to leave with them. 

Stumbling into her classroom in the early hours of Monday morning, the whole class turned to look at her briefly before continuing talking ridiculously loudly. 

Byulyi weakly tried to call attention before giving up and slumping at her desk. She opened a can of emergency red bull and downed it in only a few gulps before jumping back up and yelling as loud as she can. 

“Right! Class! If you do not settle down and be quiet I will be forced to play a game of hangman with you!” The class still ignored her, “I am going to write a letter on the board for every second you waste and it will spell out the name of a character who will die in season eight of Game Of Thrones.” 

A few class members looked up in alarm whilst the others still chatted loudly. 

“Okay,” Byulyi sighed and wrote a letter on the board, “M!”

Jisung screamed and held his hands over his ears. A few more students quickly jumped in their seats. But not everyone was being obedient. 

“I!” 

“Miss, stop!” Irene shouted. 

“S!”

“You silly bastard.” Sunghyuk’s voice was heard behind her before four pairs of hands wrestled the pen from her grasp and forced her to the floor. 

Yongsun could hear the screams coming from Byulyi’s classroom as she began making her way to the staff room. Sighing to herself, she quickly decided to investigate the noise. 

She pulled the sliding door open just in time to see the teacher in question on the floor with her students hovering over her and one of them had a whiteboard marker in their hand. 

“Hello, Miss Kim,” Byulyi greeted, “We were just... playing a game.”

The students nodded their heads and helped their teacher up. Byulyi brushed off the dust from the floor and sheepishly smiled at the literature teacher. 

“We have a meeting in the staff room.” Yongsun said. 

“Right behind you.” Byulyi held an arm for Yongsun to lead the way, “Don’t be dicks whilst I’m gone.” She warned her students. 

They walked in complete silence. The tension from their weekend chat still red hot. Yongsun didn’t even glance towards the history teacher once as they made their way down two corridors and up a flight of stairs. The rest of the faculty were already huddled around the centre table by the time the two teachers entered the room. 

The headmaster gave them a run through of the schedule for sports day and with a glare sent Byulyi’s way, he gave a warning about student participation. Byulyi just smiled and looked out of the window. All her students participated in sports day, they just put in zero effort. Unless dancing or underaged drinking was involved, her students would rather sit on their phones all day. 

“We do have a First Aider that has volunteered to help out today, right?” The headmaster asked. 

Yongsun nodded, “Yes, my friend, Heung has agreed to help.”

Byulyi’s attention snapped from the glorious sunshine of the outside world and landed straight on Yongsun. She wasn’t aware of the fact that she was glaring at the older teacher. All she could think of where her and the old man. Together. She visibly gagged and it did not go unnoticed by Yongsun. 

As soon as the headmaster dismissed the teachers, Byulyi all but ran towards her classroom to avoid any questioning the older woman was bound to put her through. She was like a woman possessed as she glided through the corridors and straight back into her classroom. 

The students looked up at her in confusion before going back to their normal conversations. Byulyi allowed them to chat amongst themselves for a few seconds. She heard a loud knock at the door and her eyes widened. 

She quickly ran towards the closet in the back of the room and instructed her class to tell whomever is there that they didn’t know where she was. Especially if it’s Miss Kim. 

“Come in!” Sunghyuk sang. 

Miss Kim came in and greeted everyone with her signature kind smile. “Is Miss Moon in here?” She asked. 

She was met with a few blank stares and one mischievous one. Sunghyuk held a finger to his lips and pointed at the closet that the history teacher was hiding in. 

“No, Miss, she’s not here.” The boy grinned and high fived Olivier. 

Miss Kim rolled her eyes and quietly tiptoed to the closet. With two hands on the handles, she wrenched it open and watched as the history teacher jumped in the air, hit her head of the roof of the closet and fell on her backside. 

“Here.” Miss Kim handed out a device to the other teacher, “You left your phone in the staff room. Apparently Wheein’s blocked your toilet again and Hyejin flooded your apartment trying to sort it out.” 

“You read my messages?” Byulyi stood up and swiped the phone out of the older woman’s hands. 

Yongsun blushed slightly, “I didn’t mean to!” She stuttered, “It just kept buzzing! I think she’s having a panic attack.” 

The younger woman just grumbled in response and ignored the pinging sounds of her phone as another load of messages from her best friend came. She chucked it in a draw inside her desk just as Yongsun slid the door closed on her way out. She noticed a new addition to her desk when she sat down. 

“Who put the school newspaper here? Who still reads and writes a newspaper?” Byulyi held it up, “I was born in the nineties, we use Twitter for our source of news.” 

Irene scoffed, “It’s my article! I made the front page.”

“‘Steroid scandal hits school before sports day.’ Not very catchy.” Byulyi began to read the article, “You’ve seriously found out that someone in this school has been taking steroids?”

Irene nodded, “I know exactly who it is too. I will reveal it all in tomorrow’s paper.” 

The teacher nodded her head and expressed an impressed smile for the young journalist, “That’s awesome. I’m proud of you.”

The rest of the lesson was filled with excited chatter over sports day. The class may put in zero effort when it comes to sports, but they were always enthusiastic about getting out of doing school work. Byulyi had put everyone’s name into a hat and all the activities into another. There was only one activity that was left. The obstacle course. Begrudgingly, Byulyi agreed to take that on as nearly everyone in the class refused to even entertain the idea of doing it. 

After nearly everyone in her class had claimed last place in their event (except Jisung who was disqualified from the sack race for accessorising his sack and using the running track to model his now dress) Byulyi was coming up to the obstacle course. She spotted Yongsun and Heung chatting away at the side and decided to approach them. 

“Hello Byulyi.” Heung greeted her with a warm smile. 

Byulyi gave him the most sarcastic smile she could offer before doing some warm up stretches. “I’m just about to do this obstacle course. Will you cheer for me?” She asked Yongsun. 

The literature teacher shrugged her shoulders, “Heung is taking part in it too. I think I’ll cheer for him.” 

Yongsun walked away. Still clearly pissed at Byulyi for their conversation over the weekend. The younger woman sighed as both she and Heung watched her walk away. 

“Good luck.” Heung grinned as he turned to the teacher. 

Byulyi scoffed, “You’re doing the race? Won’t you break your hip or cough up a lung?”

“No.” He laughed, “I have a secret that will help me win.”

“What kind of secret?”

“Concilium.” He tapped his nose and walked in the same direction as Yongsun. 

Byulyi’s face was scrunched up in confusion for a few seconds. She repeated the words ‘Concilium’ over and over in her mind trying to figure out what on Earth the crazy old man was going on about. Then it hit her. 

“Oh my god.” She gasped. 

She ran off towards Irene, Seulgi, Jisung, Sunghyuk and Olivier who were all stood around some water cooler. She motioned for them all to silently follow her as she made her way into the male locker room. She ordered the three boys to stand guard and began checking every locker for Heung’s belongings. 

“What are you doing?” Irene scolded. 

“You were right!” Byulyi didn’t turn to look at her student, instead she kept on trying to find the locker belonging to Yongsun’s old man friend. “There is someone taking steroids in this school! It’s Miss Kim’s boyfriend, Heung!” 

Irene was stunned into silence. She stuttered as she replied, “What? No that can’t be...”

“Irene, I swear to you! He told me he has a secret and tapped his nose! That’s code for drugs.” 

Seulgi held open a locker filled with clothes from the 1970’s. “Is this it?”

“Cheap aftershave? Clothes from nineteen forties Russia? Cane? Yep. This is his.” Byulyi rummaged around for a few seconds before pulling out a bottle of pills, “Ah ha! See, Irene! It is him!” 

The girl looked between the unmarked bottle of pills and her teachers face. She hesitated slightly before confessing, “But I made it all up.”

“What?”

“There was no steroids story, I made it up.” 

“You lied in print? You could be a journalist after all.” Byulyi grinned at Irene as she waved the bottle in her hand, “Now you have all the evidence you need to take that old man down.”

The teacher examined the bottle for a while before opening it up and looking inside. She took out one of the pills and held it in her hand. “Surely this has to be some sort of performance enhancer. The guy was alive during the Korean War, there’s no way he can complete an obstacle course let alone win one.”

Seulgi took the pill from her teacher. “Are steroids supposed to be blue?”

Byulyi shrugged, “Not sure, I’ve never taken steroids before.” 

“How are you going to beat him, Miss?” Irene asked, “If he’s taken steroids, you won’t win.” 

“If you can’t beat them,” Byulyi began as she shook the bottle and took a few pills, “Join them.”

______________

Heung was lightly stretching his hamstrings when Byulyi saddled up next to him with a grin to rival that of the Cheshire Cat. He returned the grin but with less enthusiasm as the teacher. 

“I know your secret.” Byulyi whispered. 

“Secret?” He asked innocently. 

The teacher winked, “Consilium.” 

“Oh, you speak Latin too? How delightful.” 

“What? No!” Byulyi shook her head, “I know that Consilium is code for drugs.” 

Heung looked genuinely confused. “Consilium is Latin for wisdom. I use it as motivation to do as much as I possibly can in the life that I have by using my experience as guidance.”

“And these, of course.”

Byulyi took out the pill bottle and tossed it to the old man smugly. Heung’s eyes widened horrifically when he realised what Byulyi threw at him. 

“I know what your intentions are.” The teacher said. 

Heung blushed a furious shade of red and began stuttering, “Listen, Byulyi, I can explain. A man of my age sometimes struggles sexually and we need a bit of help in the bedroom. Not always, you must understand.”

“What are you going on about?” 

“The viagra.”

“Viagra?!”

Heung silenced Byulyi by putting his hand over her mouth as she continued to yell ‘viagra’ over and over again. She pulled his hand away aggressively and pushed him off her. 

“I took them!” Byulyi whisper-screamed across to the man. 

“How many?” 

“About five.”

“Why?”

The teacher threw her hands up in exasperation. “Because I thought they were steroids and that you were cheating! So I wanted to level the playing field and also cheat!” 

Heung hung his head in shame. “If you’ve taken five then I reckon you’ve got about seven minutes before they properly kick in.” 

“What happens if a girl takes them?” Byulyi was panicking. She got a shrug of the shoulders from Heung and yelled for Irene and Seulgi to quickly come over. “I need you to google ‘What happens when a woman takes viagra?’ Right now.” 

“Why?” Seulgi asked as Irene searched. 

“Because those blue pills I took weren’t steroids, they were viagra.” 

The two young girls burst out laughing. Byulyi would have been angry at them if it wasn’t for the fact that she was currently having a panic attack. 

“‘Viagra increases sexual stimulation. For a man it sends a rush of blood to their penis causing an erection, for a woman it does the same but instead of an erection, it causes....’” Irene trailed off. Her mouth was wide open in silent shocked laughter. 

“It causes what?”

Seulgi took the phone from her friends hands, “Basically, Miss, you’re going to leave a snail trail behind you with every step you take. The sprint at the end of the obstacle course will be a slip and slide for everyone behind you.” 

“Fuck.” Byulyi looked over to Miss Park, “Come on! Lets start the race!” She barked. 

The teacher rolled her eyes and fired the starting pistol. 

Byulyi sprinted as fast as she could towards the first part of the course. She hopped through every single tyre and hoped and prayed the pills wouldn’t fully kick in until she was safely back in the changing rooms. 

As soon as she climbed up the rock climbing wall and ready to swing from one course to another using a rope, she could feel it. She silently thanked herself for wearing thick underwear. She could feel it running slightly down her left leg as she crawled under some netting that was supposed to represent barbed wire. 

When she finally got to the final part of the course, she was in the lead. The viagra may have actually helped her win the race after all. Her legs were starting to shake as she ran as fast as she could from one end of the course to the other. She could hear her class cheering for her and she could even make out Miss Kim’s voice from the sidelines cheering her on. 

Her chest broke the flimsy ribbon of the finishing line and she fell face first to the floor. She could feel nothing but her own forced arousal pooling inside her very tight shorts. Irene had the decency to take off her sports jacket and drape it over her teachers legs to spare her from more humiliation. 

“Miss Moon, you won!” Yongsun grinned as she stood over Byulyi. “Let me help you up.”

“NO!” Byulyi barked, “I can’t get up.”

Yongsun called Heung over as she was scared that Byulyi was actually hurt and in need of medical attention. He sheepishly made his way towards them and stood behind his girlfriend. 

“Byulyi, what’s wrong? Why can’t you stand up?”

“She accidentally took viagra, Miss.” Seulgi stated. 

“Accidentally?” Yongsun was puzzled. 

Byulyi lifted her head up, “It was his.” She pointed at Heung, “I thought they were steroids and I took some. But they were viagra because he can’t get an erection.” 

Yongsun looked mortified. Heung tried to pull her away to talk but she pushed him away. He almost begged her to talk to him, but she stated that she wasn’t interested and that he should leave. 

Byulyi would have felt smug if it wasn’t for the fact that her arousal was leaking onto the grass that she was lying on. In a weakened voice she yelled, “Can someone phone Hyejin? Tell her I need her to pick me up and to bring a spare set of clothes.”

“Do you need a vibrator as well, Miss?” Sunghyuk smugly remarked. 

“Fuck off, Sunghyuk.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Getting away from the angsty chapters and throwing in this silly one. 
> 
> As always, comment if you want or leave an kudos :) 
> 
> Nothing in this fic is serious, but meant to be all in good fun :) stay safe!


	7. Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back to school and just in time for the yearly school field trip. Going to a petting zoo and ink museum, what could go wrong?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s a very long chapter. Remember to have water breaks every 15 minutes!

Byulyi was sat at her desk and scrolling through all the photo’s Hyejin took of her during their New Years party when her class turned up. She grimaced at nearly every single picture. By 10pm that evening, she was already shitfaced and falling over everything and nothing at the same time. She couldn’t remember a thing from that night. She did wake up the next day with a blonde woman curled up in her bed. It would have been impressive and she’d have been proud of herself if it wasn’t for the fact that it was Wheein in a blonde wig. 

As soon as her class sat down, Byulyi put her phone away. She was ready for the onslaught of questions that were bound to fly her way. When they never came, she was mildly surprised and extremely grateful. Not only was she trying to physically avoid the literature teacher, she was also trying to avoid talking about her. 

“We have a ‘Back to School’ assembly today.” Byulyi heard the groans coming from her students. “I know, it sucks so bad, but we have to attend so let’s go.” 

She stood up and opened the sliding door. Turning back to her classroom, she was slightly taken aback by the fact that every student complied so easily. One by one they passed by their teacher and out into the hall in silence. Byulyi eyed them suspiciously. 

They walked to the hall in silence. Even Sunghyuk, who was as Byulyi put it ‘a little shit’, was as silent as the rest of her students. She’s sure she’s still drunk from New Years. Either that or she’s still asleep. 

Entering the hall, they were all surprised to know they were the first ones there. Normally they were the last. Many times the assembly had actually started before they even left their classroom. 

“Do we have to go to the front?” Seulgi moaned. “I can’t discreetly text my boyfriend if there’s no one in front of me to hide behind.” 

“You have a boyfriend?” Byulyi felt stunned. “But I thought you were...” She trailed off. 

“Only for you, Miss.” Seulgi winked. 

Byulyi hummed slightly and told her class to take their seats. Still in awe of the fact that everyone is doing as she asks without any form of backchat. 

The rest of the pupils began trickling in and the last class to arrive were Miss Kim’s. One of the benefits of coming early was the fact that she didn’t have to stand near Yongsun. The other teacher, however, didn’t get the hint that Byulyi was avoiding her and she made her way casually to the history teacher. 

“Hey.” Yongsun greeted. 

Byulyi just smiled at her in the most friendly way she could before turning her attention back to the headmaster on the stage. He was going on and on about how important school work is and how much they’ll have to study for their end of school year exams. Byulyi was just pretending to listen. Her eyes may have been on the stage but her focus was on the uncomfortably shifting feet besides her. 

“Can we talk?” Yongsun asked. “After school?” 

“We can talk, but first I’m going to ignore you for a week or two just like you did to me and then when I’m ready to talk, we can talk.” Byulyi was a stubborn bastard when she needed to me. She didn’t want Yongsun to hold all the cards within their dynamic. That she can just ring a bell and Byulyi would drop everything and come crawling to her. She needed some sort of power to stop herself from getting hurt again. 

Yongsun almost whimpered, “Byulyi, please.” 

“Yong,” Byulyi began, “We don’t have to talk. You don’t have to explain anything. What’s done is done and no amount of talking will undo anything.” 

“Byul...”

“We’re cool, Yongsun.” Byulyi nodded her head, “I promise.”

Yongsun didn’t believe that, but chose not to press the subject. Instead she asked, “Where are you taking your class for the field trip?” 

Byulyi sniggered for a few seconds and motioned for them to go to the back of the hall to avoid the glares from Miss Park who was stood next to the headmaster. 

“I’m not allowed to plan field trips anymore after last year.” Byulyi shrugged. “I have to go with another teacher or my class has to stay in school.” 

“What happened last year?” 

“There’s this cinema that shows old movies and Sunghyuk said there was an educational movie showing. He said it was basically a two hour biology lesson.”

“What film was it?”

“Human Centipede.” 

Yongsun snorted loudly and a few students turned to them. 

“Don’t laugh! I nearly got fired over it.”

“I’m sorry,” Yongsun tried to suppress her giggles, “I’m sorry.” She repeated and regained her posture, “Why don’t you come with me? We’re going to a petting zoo and ink museum.” 

Byulyi scrunched up her face, “Sounds boring.” 

“Yes, extremely boring which means you won’t get in trouble.” 

“Fuck it, sure, why not.” The history teacher shrugged, “Give me some permission slips so I can get their parents to sign.” 

_______________

After unsuccessfully trying to get Wheein to move out from her and Hyejin’s apartment, Byulyi once again woke up with the shorter girl in her arms. Sleeping with Wheein was like sleeping with a radiator and during the colder months Byulyi found herself gravitating towards her whenever they’d share a bed. 

A knock on the bedroom door startled them both. Hyejin stormed in and hopped into the spare space next to Wheein in the bed. 

“I have a problem.” She began. “Seokjin is the most oblivious yet sweet man I’ve ever met.”

“What do you mean?” Byulyi yawned and stretched her arms. 

Hyejin showed her her phone, “I’ve been ghosting him for a week and he texts me this! ‘Hey babe, hope you’re okay. I know you’re busy so I won’t disturb you. I just wanted you to know that I love you.’” 

“He’s so lovely.” Wheein gushed. 

“Yes he is but I’m trying to break up with him!” Hyejin swiped on her phone a few times and brought up a text conversation with someone else, “And then I’ve got Hot ‘N Cold texting me!”

Hot ‘N Cold was a nickname the three girls gave to a man Hyejin was seeing before Seokjin. Wang Kayee was his real name. His nickname came because of how he acted towards Hyejin. Hot - because of him constantly texting Hyejin to go to his apartment. Cold - because he’d ghost her for a month or two. 

“He keeps sending me pictures of his lovely penis knowing full well that I have a boyfriend.” Hyejin moaned, “He wants me to go to his.”

“You’re not going to, are you?” Byulyi asked. 

Hyejin hesitated, “Maybe.”

“Seokjin deserves better.”

“I know that. I’m going to break up with him tonight.” Hyejin placed her phone down on the bedside table. “I don’t know how I’m going to break his heart. He’s such a lovely person I’m not sure if I can do it.”

Wheein sat up, “Or, you just could offer him the third way?”

“The what?”

“The third way! It’s like an open relationship but without actually calling it a relationship. A friend of mine does it with his girlfriend, they still do couple stuff but they get to bang anyone they want.” 

Byulyi scolded Wheein for suggesting such a thing before rounding on Hyejin, “Seokjin deserves better! Break up with him properly.”

Hyejin rolled her eyes, “Fine. I’ll take him to my dumping pub tonight and I’ll break his heart face to face.”

“Good. And while we’re at it, you,” Byulyi jabbed a finger at Wheein, “can properly break up with Jungkook rather than booty calling each other every few days.” 

“Okay. We can both do it tonight.”

“Good.” Byulyi stood up and began getting ready for the school field trip, “I would absolutely hate to date either of you. I feel bad for your boyfriends.” 

______________

The field trip was as boring as Byulyi thought. The ‘ink museum’ was just a few different types of ink inside an old barn and the ‘petting zoo’ consisted of two chickens and a cow. Yongsun was very openly disappointed by everything and made a point to complain every second she could. 

Byulyi and her class just stood off to the side and messed around on their phones. Sunghyuk and Olivier were trying to knock each other down into the cow manure, Kitae was sat on a stool and staring off into space and Jisung and Irene were consoling a visibly distraught Seulgi. 

Confused at why Seulgi was upset, Byulyi crept over to her. 

“Everything okay?” She asked knowing full well that everything was not okay. 

Irene looked up at her teacher and sighed, “Her boyfriend is ignoring her.”

“He’s not just ignoring me!” Seulgi sobbed, “He got me into bed and I gave him something important. Now he’s completely ghosting me.” 

Byulyi thought for a moment and then spoke, “What did you give him? A family heirloom? Money? A gaming console?”

The glares from both Jisung and Irene were murderious. Seulgi, however, found it slightly funny. “No, Miss. He was my first.” 

“Men are just assholes.” Byulyi sighed and patted Seulgi’s shoulder, “But then again, women aren’t much better.”

“What actually happened with you and Miss Kim?” Jisung asked. 

Byulyi glanced over at the other teacher who was moving her class away from the diseased looking cow. “Nothing happened. She’s in a relationship and I’m cuddling with Wheein at a night time.” 

Before any of the three students had the chance to sympathise with their teacher, the owner of the ‘ink museum and petting zoo’ called attention. He was a very skinny old man with shoulder length greying hair, a glass eye and a bad stutter. 

“Welcome to the next part of the petting zoo.” He began whilst his eyes focused on a point well above their heads. “The world famous horned pig!”

His assistant (a middle aged man with a hunchback) brought in a cage with a sheet over it. After the owner introduced the pig, the assistant pulled the sheet off and revealed a diseased smelling pig with a horn cellotaped to his forehead. 

Yongsun gagged. “That’s disgusting!” She motioned to the cage, “I can’t believe you’re keeping an animal locked up in a cage like that! How on earth is it supposed to move around?!”

The old man cowered slightly, “It’s a wild animal, it stays in the cage.”

“A wild animal?” Byulyi muttered to her students, “I thought it was his wife.” 

“Why did you lock your wife up in a cage, sir?” Sunghyuk asked. 

“When was the last time you washed your wife?” Irene gagged. 

“Your wife has something green coming out of her ass.” Olivier added. 

The man was shaking slightly. Instead of yelling or running away, he tried to get the students to follow him to look at more inks. 

Yongsun approached the smelly pig and looked at it in pity. 

“Poor thing.” She cooed just as Byulyi approached her. “I wish I could just set her free.”

Yongsun shook her head and followed behind the rest of the students. Byulyi sighed as she watched the teacher walk away. She threw herself down on the floor next to the cage and watched as Yongsun acted as a barrier between the weird old man and the students. 

“What would you do, piggy, if you really liked someone who didn’t like you back?” She asked the sick looking pig. 

“Are you talking to the famous horned pig?” A voice from behind her startled her into jumping back on her feet. 

“What? No. Maybe. Yes.” Byulyi stammered, “Leave me alone, I’m depressed.” 

Kitae smiled sympathetically, “Want to talk about it?”

Sighing once more, Byulyi nodded, “Miss Kim has a boyfriend. She literally kissed me and then seven days later she announces to the world that she has a boyfriend. Why can’t she see that I like her? I really really like her.”

“Have you tried talking to her about it?” 

The teacher looked at her student as if he had grown two heads. “I’m a lesbian. We don’t do that. We just stare hopelessly at women and hope and pray that they make the first move.” 

Kitae chuckled, “You should let her know how you feel. If she doesn’t feel the same then that’s fine because you’re leaving next year and you won’t have to see her again, but if she does feel the same then you can both stay at our school and live happily ever after.” 

Byulyi considered him for a few seconds. Her eyes widened when an idea popped into her head. 

“I should let her know. I should do a grand gesture!”

“No, just tell her.”

“A grand gesture would be perfect! Girls like that shit!”

“Just use actual words and tell her.”

“I could free this pig!”

“Or you could tell her.”

“You’re totally right Kitae! I’m going to free the pig!”

“No, just go up to her and say ‘Miss Kim I love you.’”

“Free the pig!” 

Byulyi pushed the lock off the cage and pulled the cage door open wide. Kitae was facepalming at his teacher and warning her not to actually touch the pig. She almost yelled at the pig to run away and proudly grinned as it sprinted as far as it could until she could no longer see it. 

“Miss Kim is going to be pretty impressed.” Byulyi smugly remarked. 

“Yep.” Kitae sighed. 

The adrenaline began to wear off and Byulyi was dragged back to reality. “She’s not, is she?”

“Nope.”

“She’s going to be angry, isn’t she?”

“Yep.”

“Fuck.”

______________

After freeing the pig and realising how much of an awful mistake it was, Byulyi almost begged Yongsun to let them leave. Not that it took much convincing. The trip wasn’t as good as Yongsun had expected and she was happy to leave the farm and never look back. 

The coach ride back home put Byulyi’s anxiety on edge. As soon as the pig was released she felt instant regret. She was too scared to tell Yongsun that she freed it. She was sat at the front of the coach just behind the driver with her head in her hands. 

“I think we’re lost.” The driver mumbled. 

“Are you serious?” Byulyi groaned. She just wanted today to be over. 

“Take the wheel.” He stood up whilst the coach was still moving, “I need to use the toilet.”

Byulyi almost screamed, “No! I can’t drive a fucking coach!”

“I’ll be five minutes.” He assured her as he all but ran down the isle to the toilet at the back of the coach. 

The teacher sat down in the drivers spot and gagged slightly over how hot the chair was. She was actually not bad at driving the coach down a straight road. She gave herself a mental pat on the back. 

Suddenly a flash of pink ran out in front of the coach and Byulyi had no time at all to react as she slammed into it. Whatever it was that she hit went flying backwards through the air. Byulyi hit the breaks and stopped the coach. 

“What was that?” Yongsun jumped up and came to the front of the coach. She got a nervous shrug from the other teacher in response so she decided to investigate it herself. 

When Yongsun jumped from the coach, Byulyi turned to the students, “If anyone asks, the pig hit us! Understand?” 

The students nodded. Yongsun came back into the coach holding a plastic horn. 

“Does anyone know anything about this?” She waved it around and continued when all she got in response were blank stares, “Come on, I won’t be mad. I just want the truth.” 

Byulyi was frozen. Her eyes wide and her knees shaking. She pleaded with Kitae with her eyes to take the blame. He shook his head slightly but muttered, “Fine,” when his teacher held her hands together in a silent prayer. 

“I freed the pig, Miss.” Kitae said in a bored manner, “Because it looked sad.” 

Yongsun studied the boy for a second before replying, “That was incredibly stupid and irresponsible, but I do appreciate the gesture.”

The history teacher looked totally offended. She silently made her way to Kitae whilst Yongsun was busy putting the horn away and jabbed his shoulder with her finger. “You stole my gesture!” She accused quietly. 

“You told me to!”

“Only because I didn’t want Miss Kim to think that I was an idiot. Well, more of an idiot than she already thinks, anyway.”

Kitae folded his arms in a huff just as the driver came out from the toilet. He looked around slightly confused and asked why the coach wasn’t moving. 

After explaining to him what had happened, he tried to restart the coach to no avail. He hopped off the coach and opened the hood that lead to the engine. He mumbled to himself over and over at how stupid Byulyi was and that he shouldn’t have let her drive in the first place - something Byulyi completely agreed with. 

“I can’t get any reception.” Yongsun moaned as she held her phone up in the air. 

“Neither can I,” Seulgi moaned, “Then again, that asshole isn’t texting me back anyway, so I don’t know why I’m bothering.”

“What are we going to do?” Yongsun panicked, “We can’t go back to that farm.”

“I have an idea,” The history teacher started whilst the class moaned, “Shut up. Why don’t I go and try and find a nearby town? Someone there has to help us.”

Sunghyuk snorted, “Isn’t that what those girls did in the Human Centipede? Then before they even knew it they were eating each other’s-“

“Sunghyuk!” Byulyi clamped her hands over her ears, “That was in Germany! This is Korea, we don’t do that weird shit! And now thanks to you I’m taking some of you with me.” 

Byulyi gathered a team that consisted of herself, Yongsun, Seulgi, Irene, Sunghyuk, Kitae, Olivier and Jisung. All six students moaned and complained when they were chosen. 

Taking a huge lungful of country air, Byulyi exhaled almost lovingly. “I feel like Bear Grylls.”

“Who’s that?” Seulgi asked. 

“Guy on tv that drinks his own piss.” Sunghyuk answered. 

“Ew.” Seulgi gagged, “Please don’t do that, Miss.” 

The teacher rolled her eyes and ignored the comments. Instead she straightened her arm in front of her and spoke to the other teacher, “If we keep going straight, we’re bound to stumble upon a village sooner or later.” 

“Is that what Bear Grylls would do?”

“Not sure, I only saw one episode.” Byulyi shrugged. 

Yongsun hummed in response. The students slumped on behind them still cursing under their breaths. Both teachers ignored them and continued. 

“I love the outdoors.” Byulyi gushed, “I used to be in the Girl Scouts when I was younger. We had this scout leader Lee Soyun and she was my absolute hero.”

“Really?”

The history teacher nodded enthusiastically, “Yeah, this one time we went camping and she actually fought off a lion!” 

“A lion?”

“Yeah!”

“In South Korea?” 

“No. Well, kind of.” Byulyi chuckled, “It was on Jeju Island.”

Yongsun eyed the teacher critically. “What happened?”

“We all went swimming in the ocean and when it was time to go back to camp she explained that a lion attacked our tents and ate all of our clothes. She told us how she beat it up and it ran away.” 

“Did you ever see this lion?”

“No, she scared it away. It must have been a really weird lion. It only ate our clothes and nothing else. It didn’t even touch the food.” 

Yongsun wondered whether or not she should burst the younger girls bubble but the look on Byulyi’s face confirmed that she didn’t need to as the bubble was already bursting inside the other woman’s brain. 

They walked in silence for an hour. Each tree looked the same as the last and the winter air was making their leg muscles twitch and ache. After nearly every student began whining for a break, the teachers stopped by some logs and allowed the students to rest. 

Byulyi walked around for another few minutes before triumphantly returning and throwing something to the ground in front of the students and the other teacher. She grinned cockily at their astonished faces. 

“Is that a crow?” Seulgi gagged. 

“Yes it is.” Byulyi picked it up by its wing, “Bear Grylls says you never know when the next time you’ll be able to eat will be.” 

“Do you kill it?” Yongsun brought her hands to her face in disgust. 

“Yes.”

Irene inspected it for a few seconds, “Looks like it’s been dead for weeks.”

“Shush, Irene.” Byulyi placed the crow on the log next to Olivier, “I also found these berries. They’re delicious.” She held out a handful of reddish berries. 

Yongsun jumped up in alarm, “Don’t eat those! They’re poisonous.”

“Don’t be silly. They’re fine. I’ve eaten a handful and I’m fine,” the history teacher shrugged, “Anyone want one? Olivier? You guys eat anything in France. Frogs legs and snails and all that.” 

“J'espère que tu meurs.” Olivier smiled. 

Byulyi just shrugged her shoulders and ate a few more berries. Her stomach began to hurt slightly but she put it down to the fact that the berries were the first thing she’s eaten since breakfast. 

Yongsun rolled her eyes, “Kids, get your packed lunches out.” 

The history teacher gaped at the students, “You guys have packed lunches?!”

“Of course they do, Miss Moon.” Yongsun sounded exasperated, “It’s a school field trip. If you actually read the permission slip it required students to bring one! You can share mine if you want.” 

Byulyi shook her head, “No, it’s fine. You guys enjoy your lunches with all its calories and e-numbers. I shall be feasting on Mother Nature.” She picked up something from the floor, “Look! A mushroom.” She threw it in the air and caught it in her mouth before chewing it and swallowing it. 

She instantly regretted eating the mushroom and it took all her willpower not to throw up in front of everyone. She could feel her stomach bubbling and felt as though there was someone in there doing the Cha Cha Slide on a continuous loop. 

They set off again once the lunches were eaten. Byulyi could still feel her stomach raving but tried to ignore it. She was lagging behind her students and Yongsun whilst cradling her belly in her arms. 

She vaguely recalled Sunghyuk climbing a tree to try and see if he could spot a town or village. She vaguely heard Yongsun yell for help towards a few men fishing. All she could think of was the absolute pain in her stomach. She ran towards a small stream and threw up everything inside her stomach. The teacher felt better almost immediately. 

“Hello!” Yongsun yelled. “Can you help us?” She waved her arms around to get their attention. 

The two fishermen pointed at something in the water in disgust and snapped their heads up to try and gauge who it came from. They spotted the students and Yongsun and yelled profanities at them. Byulyi came stumbling behind them wiping her mouth and breathing heavily. 

“What did you do?!” Yongsun shouted at Byulyi. 

Sunghyuk’s voice saved Byulyi from answering the angry looking teacher, “I’m stuck!”

Byulyi snapped to attention, “I’ll help you down.” She said groggily. 

“Don’t leave me up here.” Sunghyuk almost begged. 

“Don’t worry, we won’t go anywhere without you.” 

Seulgi almost screamed, “Those men are coming for us!” She pointed to the two fishermen who were running towards a bridge so they could cross the stream and confront them. 

“Fuck it.” Byulyi waved her arms, “Fucking leave him up there.”

Byulyi gathered the rest of the class to make a run for it whilst Yongsun and Olivier helped Sunghyuk down. They sprinted as far away as they could before Yongsun grabbed onto Byulyi’s arm and yanked her back. 

“Why do you have to ruin everything?” She yelled at Byulyi in front of the students. 

“What do you mean?” 

“I organised this field trip and you decided it was boring and made us go home early.” Yongsun felt her voice crack slightly.

Byulyi slumped against a tree, “You didn’t like the farm either.”

“Then I tell you not to eat those berries and you did anyway.”

“Okay. I’ll admit that wasn’t my finest moment.”

“Then you threw up and ruined a chance at us getting home safely! You’re stupid and immature and you only ever think about yourself.” 

“That’s not true!” Byulyi yelled back, “I think about you all the time! That’s why I set that fucking pig free!” 

Yongsun stood by in shock before she scoffed and shook her head. “You let the pig free? Of course you did.”

“You said you admired the gesture.”

“Yes! When it was made by a child! Not an adult. Byulyi you’re twenty-eight! Grow up.” Yongsun barged past the other woman, “I can’t believe I was ever interested in you. What was I thinking?” She mumbled but everyone heard her. 

Byulyi once again felt her heart being broken by Miss Kim Yongsun. 

_________

Night was beginning to fall around them and they were lost in the forest. Yongsun was sat on a log with the students sat around her. No one was speaking. Byulyi watched from a few paces behind them. 

Jisung and Seulgi made their way over to their teacher. They gave her sympathetic looks before sitting down on either side of her. 

“How are you feeling?” Jisung asked. 

Byulyi shook her head, eyes still fixed on the back of Yongsun’s head. “My stomach hurts.” She said simply. 

Seulgi patted her teachers arm affectionately and shot her a look full of sympathy. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” 

“For what Miss Kim said. You’re not stupid...” Seulgi stopped herself, “Well, you’re not immature...” she stopped herself again, “Well, okay maybe you’re both those things, but one thing you’re not and never have been is selfish.” 

“Thanks,” Byulyi mumbled, “I think.” 

Jisung nudged his shoulder against his teachers. “You’re not self centred. You helped me become okay with who I am. The fact that my parents knew you were gay helped them come to terms with me being gay. Now they’re my biggest supporters.” 

Seulgi nodded, “And you helped me realise my worth. That I’m more than just a pretty girl. That I’m smart and talented. You gave me the confidence to be an independent woman. Just for one man to break it within weeks of me knowing him.” 

“He isn’t worth shit.” Byulyi finally took her eyes away from the back of Yongsun’s head. “You’ll find someone who will worship the ground you walk on and then you’ll think back to your old boyfriend and you’ll laugh and say to yourself, ‘What was I thinking?’.”

“See.” Seulgi smiled, “You know what to say to make people feel better. Miss Kim was just angry at you. She’ll apologise once she realises what she said was wrong.” 

As if she heard her own name, Yongsun turned around. Byulyi averted her gaze back down to the floor. Seulgi and Jisung shared a look and stood up quickly. The literature teacher took Jisung’s seat to the right of Byulyi. 

“I’m sorry.” Yongsun whispered. 

“Don’t be sorry.” Byulyi grumbled, “You were right. I’m stupid and immature. I just wanted to impress you.” 

The older teacher sighed. “Why?”

“Because I like you, Yongsun. I really like you. I didn’t realise it until recently, but I really do.”

Yongsun took one of Byulyi’s hands in hers. “Is that why you’re acting like this?”

Byulyi nodded. “You kissed me. During the Christmas party. You kissed me. But then you ran away and you ignored me. That wasn’t fair.”

“It wasn’t and I’m sorry.” 

“You made me realise that I do actually have feelings for you and then seven days later you get a boyfriend. I can understand why you’d chose him over me. You can’t marry me, not in this country at least, but you can marry him. You can’t have children with me, we can’t even adopt one together, but you can have as many as you want with him. Someone like him will always be an easier option than someone like me.”

“Byulyi, no! That’s not what happened. I was speaking to him before we kissed and I panicked. He asked me to be his girlfriend on Christmas Day and I just said yes.” Yongsun could feel tears pricking her eyes, “I’ve never liked a girl before. I thought I was straight until I met you and when we kissed it opened up a wormhole of questions and emotions that I was getting sucked into. I’m sorry for what I did, but at the time I didn’t know what else to do.”

The history teacher sucked in a shaky breath. “I’d give up everything for you.” She admitted. “The job at the other school would have gotten a firm ‘no’ if you hadn’t ran away.” 

“Why? The offer they’ve given you is like a dream come true.”

“My grandfather told me something when I was little. He was an old romantic. He used to say, ‘Byulyi, always remember, life is too short to not see the face of the person you love every single day.’” Byulyi looked up at Yongsun, “If I was able to be with you and see you every day, then any job is a dream come true.” 

“Byul...”

“I think I can finally understand what Dahee meant when she broke up with me.” Byulyi chuckled, “She said I talked about another woman too much and that she felt like she was standing in the way. She broke up with me because I couldn’t stop talking about you.” 

Yongsun could feel her own heart hammering away against her chest. 

Byulyi laughed loudly, “Do you know what my mother said when I told her that Dahee dumped me? She said she was too glamorous for me anyway. Too sophisticated and way too tall.” 

The literature teacher joined in with the laughter, “Your mother sounds funny.” 

Byulyi nodded, “She is.” 

A light from behind Yongsun’s head gained Byulyi’s attention. She could spot the headlights of a few parked cars in the distance. She jumped up quickly and yelled, “We’re saved!” Before sprinting towards the parked cars. 

The windows were steamed up and the cars were rocking back and forth but Byulyi thought nothing of it. She lightly tapped on the drivers window and watched as it automatically opened. 

“Woah!” She yelled and slapped a hand over her eyes. “I’m really sorry to disturb you but I’m a teacher and my class is on a field trip but our coach has broken down. Is there any way you can help us?”

“Miss Moon?” The naked woman on her knees in the cramped space of the floor by the passenger seat gasped. 

“Oh, you’re Sunghyuk’s mother.” Byulyi smiled politely whilst trying hard to keep her eyes focused on her face rather than her very exposed chest, “He’s actually stranded with us too.”

A man who was very much not Sunghyuk’s father grinned at the teacher, “Give us twenty minutes and we’ll help you.”

Byulyi nodded and made her way back to Yongsun and the students. Her eyes were haunted with the vision of Sunghyuk’s very attractive mother giving some fat old man a blowjob. She shuddered as she approached Yongsun. 

“You okay?” She asked. 

“No.”

“Miss, what are they doing?” Sunghyuk asked. 

Byulyi froze for a few seconds before blurting out, “Bird watching.”

“But it’s dark.” Irene said, confused. 

“They’re looking for owls.” She tried to smile reassuringly. Turning to the older teacher, Byulyi muttered, “I’ve just seen my first penis. And it was horrible.”

__________

Byulyi and Yongsun departed the bus first followed by each student. It was nearly nine in the evening and the history teacher’s phone was bombarded by texts from Hyejin and Wheein who were waiting for her inside Hyejin’s dumping pub. After agreeing to dump her boyfriend, Hyejin agreed to also tell Wheein to move out from their apartment. 

“What a day.” Byulyi yawned. 

“Yeah.” Yongsun nodded. 

“Can we go back to pretending we didn’t know that I liked you? I don’t want things to become awkward between us.” Byulyi begged. 

Yongsun rolled her eyes, “That won’t end well and you know it.”

“I won’t be here long enough to see it end badly anyway.” 

“Have you accepted the job offer?”

“Not yet, but I have until the end of the month so I’ll do it eventually.”

“Spoken like a true university student.” Yongsun winked. 

Byulyi didn’t have the chance to reply as she spotted Seulgi coming down the steps of the coach. 

“Has your boyfriend texted you?” She asked. 

Seulgi shook her head, “No. I can’t believe I thought he loved me.”

“Why did you think that?”

“Because he told me he loved me.” 

The younger teacher tried not to snort as the student walked away. A honking from a car averted her attention and Yongsun cleared her throat. 

“This is my ride.” She nodded over her shoulder. 

Byulyi could see Yongsun’s boyfriend leaning against his car with a cigarette in his hand. ‘Gods he looks like a fucking douche.’ She commented in her head. 

“Namchun!” Seulgi shrieked and pushed both Yongsun and Byulyi out of the way. “Namchun you asshole! Why won’t you return my calls?!” She chased him away. 

The teachers stared on in confusion as they waited for Seulgi to come back. The student was in floods of tears as she made her way back to the teachers. 

“Seulgi, who was that?” The younger teacher asked. 

“That was the asshole who took my virginity and ghosted me.”

“But, that’s...” Yongsun trailed off. 

“Lee Namchun.” Seulgi sniffed, “I’d love to hang him from the school roof by his balls.” 

Seulgi’s parents called her back over and she ran off towards them. Byulyi turned to Yongsun who was stood in shocked silence. When Byulyi opened her mouth, Yongsun snapped at her. 

“Don’t you dare say anything!”

“I was going to ask if you wanted to come out with me and my friends.” Byulyi suggested, “It’ll be fun watching men get their hearts broken. Wheein’s dumping her boyfriend, Hyejin’s dumping hers and then Hyejin and I are dumping Wheein as our roommate.” 

Yongsun nodded. “That actually does sound like fun.” 

_____________

By the time Byulyi and Yongsun arrived at the pub, Hyejin and Seokjin were sat at one end of the room and Wheein and Jungkook were sat at the other. They opted to sit in between the two couples so they could hear their conversations better. Byulyi ordered them both a coke before sitting down next to Yongsun and listening in on their conversations. 

-

“You’re dumping me?” Jungkook asked. 

“Yes.”

“Then why do you keep sleeping with me if you don’t want to be with me anymore?”

Wheein reached across the table and placed a hand on top of Jungkook’s. 

“Boredom.” 

-

“Have you ever heard about the third way?” Hyejin asked. 

“No, what is that, petal?” Seokjin chuckled. 

“It’s like an open relationship but without actually having a relationship.”

“Wait. You want us to be in an open relationship?”

“No, it’s the third way! We can still do what we do, but without labels and we can see whomever we want.”

“So you’re dumping me?”

“No!”

“You want to keep seeing me but sleep with other people?”

“Yes.”

“You’ve cheated on me, haven’t you?”

Hyejin’s eyes shifted from side to side and she chose not to answer. 

“You have. You’ve cheated on me and you want to continue to cheat on me but with my permission.” 

“No, Seokjin! It’s the third fucking way, okay?!”

“Can you even hear yourself, Hyejin? Well, you’ve got what you wanted. We’re done.”

-

Wheein skipped over to Byulyi’s table and sat down next to Yongsun. All three were listening to Hyejin and Seokjin and not daring to speak a word just in case they missed something. Jungkook was sat at the bar visibly sobbing and downing as much beer as he could. 

They all watched as Seokjin stood up angrily and pulled his coat from his chair before storming out of the pub. Hyejin breathed a sigh of relief as she came over and sat next to Byulyi. 

“That went quite well, all things considered.” Hyejin shrugged. 

Seokjin barged back inside and stood in front of Hyejin. His eyes were full of unshed tears and his voice broke. “Hyejin, you don’t realise this now, but you and I have something. We have something special and unique. I was going to support you no matter what. I was going to watch you grow and I was going to give you my love and my life and one day you’ll want someone’s love and you’ll understand. I hope when that time comes you’ll remember it was offered sincerely, generously and unconditionally. Goodbye Hyejin.” 

The tears began to fall as he turned and walked away. Byulyi could hear Hyejin sighing heavily with her shoulders slumped. 

Hyejin lifted her head slightly and broke the silence, “He was a bit boring, though.” 

“So boring.” Wheein moaned. 

“Boring bastard.” Byulyi agreed. “Another drink?” She asked Yongsun who nodded. Byulyi stood up and made her way to the bar and tried to avoid making eye contact with Jungkook who was still sobbing his heart out. 

“You did it, then?” Hyejin asked Wheein. 

Wheein nodded, “Yeah. Single again. I’m still okay to stay with you guys right?” 

Hyejin panicked slightly, “Well, Byulyi wanted me to tell you that she doesn’t want you to move in with us.” She said it as fast as she could. 

“Where am I going to live?”

“Yeah, didn’t think of that. That’s a good point.”

“Hyejin! You could have told me that before I broke up with Jungkook!”

“Yeah, that would have been the better way around. I’ll fix this, I promise.” 

Hyejin jumped up from her seat, ran to the bar and dragged Jungkook back with her. She threw his drunk ass down next to Wheein and tried to explain possible living arrangements. 

“I’m confused.” Jungkook slurred, “You don’t want to be with me but you do want to live with me?”

“Yes. The arrangement is we still live together but we get to sleep with whomever we want. It’s called the third way.” 

Jungkook sobbed slightly, “That’s all well and good for you, you’re a hot woman. What about me? I’m terrible at picking up girls.”

“Fair point.” Wheein shrugged, “I’ll just have to live with you and Byulyi.” 

Hyejin’s eyes widened slightly, “Lets not be too hasty. Jungkook, you’re a catch! You’ve got soo much going for you. I bet you’re an excellent kisser, I know you’re amazing in bed because the walls of our apartment are paper thin, you’re so attractive, you’re kind and sweet and you’ve got amazing hair.” 

“Alright, Hyejin, calm down.” Wheein warned. 

“You’re not too bad yourself,” Jungkook drunkenly grinned, “Always liked your face and tits.” 

“You’re also tall and muscular, what woman wouldn’t want you?” Hyejin continued despite the warning glares she was getting from her best friend. 

“I feel like I’m being hit on.” Jungkook smirked. 

Wheein almost yelled, “Yes. It does seem like that!” 

“How does that make you feel?” Hyejin asked. 

“Good. Confident.”

“That’s wonderful.” Hyejin clapped her hands together, “Now, under the third way, you can kiss whomever you like. No labels, no boundaries, no rules. You can just go for it!” 

Jungkook went for it. He leaned over and smashed his lips against Hyejin’s. Yongsun and Byulyi widened their eyes in shock. Wheein grabbed the collar of Jungkook’s shirt and yanked him back. 

“You are a good kisser.” Hyejin commented. 

“I wanna do the third way.” Jungkook grinned. 

“No.” Wheein snapped. 

Hyejin sent her friend an apologetic look. “Sorry Wheein, my bad. I miscalculated the situation.”

“We’re not doing the third way!” Wheein yelled jealously. 

“Why? Are you jealous or do you want to get back with me?”

“Jungkook, they’re the same thing!” Wheein stood up and dragged her boyfriend to his feet before storming out from the dumping pub. 

Hyejin grinned smugly to the two teachers, “I did that.”

“You’ve done nothing!” Byulyi laughed, “They’re in the exact same position as before except you have now kissed her boyfriend.”

“Still,” Hyejin shrugged, “At least she won’t come home with us tonight.” 

“True.”

___________

As Namchun was Yongsun’s ride home and Byulyi had all the intentions of getting drunk with her friends in the dumping pub, neither of them had their cars on hand. So they both had to walk home. Byulyi had decided to walk the older teacher to her apartment block before heading home. 

They walked mostly in silence. The gravity of the day weighing heavily on their shoulders. Byulyi sighed to herself, a lot had happened within the past twenty hours and she wasn’t looking forward to processing any of it. 

“I can’t wait to go sleep.” Yongsun yawned from beside her. 

Byulyi grinned, “I can’t wait to finally have my bed to myself.” 

The older woman just bumped their shoulders instead of responding. They continued in silence for a while until Yongsun broke it again. 

“Did you mean what you said?” She asked. 

“I’ve said a lot of things today.” Byulyi laughed, “Can you narrow it down?” 

The literature teacher rolled her eyes, “When you said you’d give up your new job for me.” 

“Oh,” Byulyi felt herself blush, “I would give up everything for you.” 

Yongsun grinned and wrapped her right hand around Byulyi’s left. They walked hand in hand for the final leg of their journey to Yongsun’s apartment block. 

“I want to try.” She said in a small voice, “Us, I mean. I want to give it a try.”

“Please don’t get my hopes up.” Byulyi took her hand back. “You’re breaking my heart.” 

The older teacher stopped walking and made the younger teacher face her. Yongsun cupped Byulyi’s face in her hands and leaned their foreheads together. 

“I mean it. You’re wonderful, stupid, kind, immature and the most selfless person I’ve ever met. I don’t want the easier option anymore. I just want you.” 

Using the hands around the younger woman’s face to keep her in place, Yongsun leaned in slowly giving Byulyi enough time to pull away if she wanted to. When no such resistance came, Yongsun softly pressed their lips together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed :)


	8. Eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s Valentine’s Day at the school.

Byulyi lost the feeling in her right arm. The sensation of pins and needles erupted across her skin. Opening her eyes one at a time, she was greeted with the sight of a head of long and dark hair. The owner nuzzled her face against Byulyi’s numbing arm and continued snoring away. 

“Please don’t be Wheein.” The history teacher repeated over and over again as she leaned over the sleeping beauty in her arms. She brushed a few strands of hair that covered the woman’s face to the side and sighed happily upon recognising the face of her girlfriend, Yongsun. 

“Oh, thank god.” She breathed. 

Byulyi wasn’t sure if it was the movement of her on the bed or the talking, but Yongsun’s eyes fluttered open and she mumbled groggily, “What do you mean?” 

The younger of the two wrapped both arms around the literature teacher and burrowed her face into her neck. She left lazy kisses along Yongsun’s neck as she responded.

“I was worried you might have been Wheein. She has a habit of sneaking in here when she has arguments with her boyfriend.” 

“How often does Wheein crawl into your bed, exactly?” Yongsun turned around and was now facing the other woman. 

Byulyi hesitated slightly. “No where near as often as she used to.”

A mysterious glint found its way into the older of the two’s eyes and Byulyi gulped. Yongsun wasn’t jealous enough to assume anything was going on between her girlfriend and Wheein, but that doesn’t mean she can’t give the younger girl a hard time. 

Softly, Yongsun placed her hands on Byulyi’s shoulders and forced her back onto the mattress. Growling slightly, the older of the two climbed on top and straddled Byulyi’s hips. Her arms kept the younger in place as she swept her head down low and brushed their lips together gently at first. 

Byulyi sighed lovingly into the kiss and made an attempt at deepening it. Yongsun lifted her head up and broke off their embrace before winking and hopping off the history teacher. 

“You can’t leave me like that.” Byulyi spluttered and crawled to the edge of her bed. 

Yongsun winked, “Oh, I can.” Before disappearing from Byulyi’s bedroom doorway and into the bathroom. 

The history teacher flopped back on her bed and grinned widely to herself. Just over a month had passed since Yongsun kissed her for the second time and within that month Byulyi had declined the job offer from a different school, Yongsun proudly introduced Byulyi to her parents and Yonghee and Byulyi’s youngest sister, Yesol, had the misfortune of walking in on them. She officially joined her mother’s ‘Scarred For Life Because Of Byulyi’s Sexcapades’ squad. 

They made a pact to take things slow and not rush into anything sexual too soon, but on a cold Saturday in January a make out session turned into something deep, raw and passionate between the teachers. They realised how well they both fit together sexually and tried to make up for lost time. 

Yongsun would sometimes stay at Byulyi’s apartment during the week whilst Byulyi mainly stayed at Yongsun’s at a weekend. Yongsun’s older sister, Yonghee, was a midwife at a local hospital and worked nearly every weekend which freed up their shared apartment. 

Byulyi yawned loudly and forced herself to sit up. Today was Valentine’s Day and that meant that within the school, the pupils and teachers were permitted to wear costumes - whether they be couple costumes or singles costumes. 

Although their new relationship was still a secret within their school, not even Byulyi’s class knew, Yongsun had practically forced the younger of the two to dress up in a couples costume. She shivered as she pulled on her costume. It was snowing currently in Seoul and her outfit was completely unsuited to the weather outside. 

Yongsun reappeared in the doorway of Byulyi’s room in her costume grinning seductively at the younger woman. Tossing her blonde wig onto the bedside table, Yongsun placed her hands on her hips. 

“What do you think?” She asked. 

“You’re actually wearing that to school?” Byulyi stammered out. 

The older woman frowned. That was not the reaction she was expecting. “I’ll be wearing tights underneath if that’s what you’re worried about.” 

“How do you take it off? Like do you have to pull the whole thing down just to pee?”

“No.” Yongsun rolled her eyes. “There’s a zipper under the skirt that detaches the top piece from the bottom.” 

“Turn around.” Byulyi twirled her finger. “Show me.”

Yongsun did as she was asked and lifted up her skirt. Two soft yet strong hands gripped either side of her hips, threw her onto the bed and raised her up on her hands and knees. 

“It’s only right that I test the zipper out.” Byulyi winked. “We wouldn’t want any accidents to happen while we’re in school, would we?” 

The older of the two didn’t have the chance nor ability to respond. The zipper on her costume was pulled, as were the bottoms of the outfit and replaced with a hot mouth. 

___________

“I’m sorry I’m late.” Byulyi yelled out to her uninterested class. Each pupil glanced at her and then went back to their conversations. 

Byulyi took the time to study her classroom. Everyone was dressed up and nearly half the class came as Harry Potter. She rolled her eyes and chuckled. The imagination of youth cannot seem to think uniquely these days. 

“What have you come dressed as?” Sunghyuk, also dressed as Harry Potter, asked. 

The teacher span on the spot and grinned. “I’m Aries, God of War.” 

Seulgi gushed, “You look fantastic, Miss.”

“Thank you, Seulgi.” 

“I thought you were Caesar.” Olivier chuckled whilst searching within his bag for something. 

“Who’s Caesar?” Jisung asked. 

“Roman guy.” Sunghyuk answered, “Got stabbed in the back for inventing a salad.”

Byulyi sighed and took her helmet off. “Caesar didn’t invent a salad.”

“Yes he did, Miss. It’s in the bible.”

“Oh god, and I’m supposed to be your history teacher.” Byulyi facepalmed. “Anyway, it’s a couples costume.”

At this, the interest from her class piqued. 

“Couples? Who’s got a matching Aries outfit?” Irene asked. 

Sunghyuk yelled, “Seulgi, what are you wearing and does it match what Miss is wearing?” 

“I don’t think Aries would have been caught fucking Cinderella, Sunghyuk.” Byulyi rolled her eyes. “It’s a secret couples costume, anyway. If you’re smart enough to connect the dots, then you’ll figure out who it is.” 

Irene considered that a challenge and tapped a finger off her chin. “If you’re Aries, then your partner should look like one of Aries’ conquests. Aries had an affair with Aphrodite, didn’t he?” 

“Correct.” Byulyi nodded. 

“Wasn’t Aphrodite the fountain that exploded in Mamma Mia?” Jisung asked with his head resting in his right hand. 

“Wonderful film. However, Jisung? Shut up.”

Irene continued, “So if this couple of yours is supposed to be Aphrodite, but secretly, then we’ll have to look at it in a different angle.”

“Isn’t Aphrodite supposed to represent Venus and Aries Mars?” Seulgi said nonchalantly whilst she was lounging on her chair picking at her fingernails. She looked up to see twenty pairs of eyes on her. “What? I was a big fan of Sailor Moon when growing up and Sailor Venus was supposed to be a descendant of Aphrodite. Or something like that.” 

“Miss Kim is dressed as Sailor Venus.” Irene gasped. 

Sunghyuk clapped his hands. “So you’re finally banging Miss Kim? About time.”

“Don’t be disgusting.” Byulyi scolded her student. “But yes, I am.” She grinned. 

“I already knew that weeks ago.” Jisung yawned. 

“How?”

“I hacked your Facebook.”

Byulyi’s eyes went as wide as saucers. “It was you who sent Miss Kim that weird message, wasn’t it?!” 

“What did he say?” Sunghyuk laughed. 

“He said, “Hello, Yongsun. I just wanted you to know that I’m thinking about you.‘“ Byulyi recited the message to a chorus of ‘aww’s. “‘I’m in the bath and I’m hard.‘“ 

At that the whole class burst into uncontrollable laughter. The teacher glared over at her smug looking student and flashed her middle finger his way. 

“It didn’t even make sense.” Byulyi complained. “You made it sound like I have a cock.”

Jisung shrugged. “It made sense to Miss Kim. She replied saying ‘Strange, I’ve spent a lot of the past few days in between your legs, I think I’d have spotted a penis if there was one.’” 

“Stay away from my Facebook.” The teacher warned before turning to her whiteboard and beginning today’s lesson. 

Luckily most of the lesson went by in blissful silence. Only occasionally did Sunghyuk shout something inappropriate followed by a high five with Olivier and a few giggles from the girls in class. 

Ten minutes before the class was due to leave for their next lesson, Seulgi raised her hand and pointed towards the teachers desk. 

“Don’t forget to open your Valentine’s Day card.” She blushed. 

“Oh Seulgi.” Byulyi opened the envelope and held it upside down. A lace red thong fell out and landed on Byulyi’s desk. “No Valentine’s Day is complete without you trying to give me a pair of your underwear.”

Picking up two pens, she lifted the article of clothing and tossed them back to the pupil. 

“Thanks for the card, though.” She smiled at the student before putting the card on display at her desk. Seulgi beamed. 

Olivier held up a card of his own, “I got a card from Sunghyuk’s mom.” He grinned when his best friend shot him a death glare. “‘Dear Olivier,’” he began to read his own handwriting, “Last night was such a revelation for me, I never knew how much better French baguettes were compared to Korean kimchi. Here’s your thirty thousand won back. You were so good, I couldn’t charge you. Love Sunghyuk’s mom.’” 

“She really signed it ‘Sunghyuk’s mom’ rather than writing her actual name?” Byulyi asked and got a smug nod in return. 

Sunghyuk held out his very own card. “Funny that, because your mom gave me a Valentine’s Day card too.” He opened it and watched as something heavy fell from it and hit his desk. “Oh, look. She’s given me back the ramen noodles I paid her with.” 

A knock at the door interrupted the class and potentially stopped a fight between Sunghyuk and Olivier. Miss Kim, wearing the orange of Sailor Venus and a blonde wig, poked her head through the door. Byulyi caught herself staring at her girlfriend and it wasn’t until Seulgi threw her pen at the teacher that she snapped out it. 

Yongsun motioned for Byulyi to meet her in the hallway and the younger woman nodded before scrambling to her feet. Before she made it out of the door, she turned back to her class. 

“Irene, you’re in charge.” The student grinned and jumped up. Byulyi faced the two boys on the far side of the room. “Oh, and Olivier, if you really are sleeping with Sunghyuk’s mother, I’d suggest for you to boil wash your cock with bleach afterwards.” 

Luckily the door closed before the stapler Sunghyuk threw could hit her. 

“You talk to them like that and then wonder why you’re always in trouble.” Yongsun laughed. 

“They know I’m only messing with them.” Byulyi chuckled. “I hope.” 

Rolling her eyes, the other teacher stated why she wanted to see Byulyi urgently. “Considering it’s Valentine’s Day and also a Friday, I booked us both in at a hotel for the weekend.”

“A sex weekend? In a luxurious hotel? I think I’ve fallen in love with you.”

Yongsun rolled her eyes. “It’s also a spa resort so we can spend most of the weekend relaxing in between having lots of sex.” 

“Marry me.”

The older woman giggled and smacked Byulyi’s shoulder softly. “You’d be so lucky! I’ll pick you up from yours at five tonight. So be ready.”

“I will.”

“And while you’re at it, change your Facebook password.”

“Why? What’s happened this time?”

“My mom and dad added you as a friend and they can see your status updates. They think I’m dating a weirdo.”

Byulyi groaned, “What’s Jisung done now?”

Yongsun held up her phone, “Your status now says, ‘Moon Byulyi is fingering her cat.’”

“I’ll kill the little bastard.”

The older teacher chuckled and span around. “Five tonight! Don’t forget to pack anything and everything we’ll need to properly enjoy this weekend.” 

After receiving a suggestive wink and tone from the other teacher, Byulyi is pretty sure that if she really did have a penis, it would have exploded inside her tight Greek tunic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is split into two for a few reasons. It was too long to put into just one, the next chapter will be M rated and it’ll come sometime in the new year. 
> 
> Speaking of which, I wish you all a happy new year and a prosperous 2021! I hope this fic has entertained you. God knows we all deserved a good laugh this year.


End file.
